From Cold to Fire
by pleasant-hell
Summary: That is where she could hear it. Coming from the command building. The moans that had been haunting her for months. The growls and the groans that she had nightmares about. They were inside. Sequel to In Blood and In Fire.


Santana Lopez lived in nightmares. Not just in her sleeping state, but in her waking life. As protected as they were in the military complex, there was no shaking the looming threat. The threat that hung over them everyday like a charcoal gray storm cloud that threatened to open up over them at any second.

Sure, they were saved - swept away by the roar of engines. They were in a small military complex in the middle of nowhere that used to be used primarily for research, but it was an island of almost safe in a sea of terror

Even though it was a military base things were still chaotic. This isn't something that anyone had ever trained for. This isn't something that anyone could have even expected and few could have even thought about. Zombies used to just be in books, movies and video games, but now they were real. They were part of the waking life and the nightmares of the thousands of people that were living through it.

They didn't know much. When Sue was only given a slap on the wrist for her heroic rescue of a group of kids in Lima, she was reinstated. Third in command on this base, she had more actually combat experience than most people combined, included her two superior officers who had ridden desks all the way to the top.

It was safe to say that she knew what they knew. And they knew a fat lot of nothing. There were some science crap that they talked about going on in the old bomb shelter underneath the west side of the base, but it didn't bother her. She was a tactical advisor. She was a weapons expert. She was not a scientist. She felt fine, leaving the science to the eggheads. She wasn't so much concerned with the how the outbreak was spreading as much as how to stop it, how to contain it and how to keep the unbitten public safe. The nerds could take their sweet time finding out what was going on. She had little faith in them, since it had been months since the very first person was bitten and nothing had been found out.

Santana groaned. She didn't want to get out of bed. Not that she was getting any sleep, but the bed was warm and Brittany was in it. She didn't have to look to know that Brittany was there. Technically Brittany was assigned the bed above her, but for the most part they laid their clothes out on Brittany's bed and slept on the bottom bunk that Santana was assigned. It was never a spoken agreement, but it was understood and no one would say anything to them. They were legends around the complex. The kids from Lima that toughed it out by themselves in the post apocalyptic wasteland.

As they lay there, Santana opened one eye. She had to check one thing before she felt completely comfortable where she was. There, tucked between the metal slats and the flimsy top mattress above them were her machetes. She threw the biggest stinking fit to get them back after they'd been sterilized only to be told no repeatedly by some guy in a lab coat before she stole them back in the middle of the night from the weapon cache.

Of course that only led to more members of the New Directions taking their own weapons back in the middle of the night. Brittany's P226 was in the footlocker at the end of their beds. Quinn's scoped rifle was leaning in the corner that her bed and the wall made. The shotguns that the boys loved so much were lined neatly against the wall. They teased Rachel when she took her pump-action shotgun back because of what had happened when she had first used it, but they all felt a lot safer knowing that everyone in the room could help defend themselves given the need.

There was no recourse. The military personnel were overwhelmed to begin with and for the most part they left the Lima kids to themselves. They'd all heard their harrowing tail either first hand or retold from someone to had heard it. There was an official file in the commanding officer's office, but everything in the file was basically what everyone knew. They had survived.

What was left of their families were moved to the bunkroom right next door. They all kept their poker faces when they were being told what members of their family they had lost. Realistically they had all figured that they had lost everyone and had accepted that into their first days of living in the loft in Lima. So instead of counting losses, they counted saves.

When Santana was satisfied that they had laid in bed long enough, she kissed Brittany's forehead. The blonde was already wide-awake and just waiting for her girlfriend to be ready to leave. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Santana mumbled back.

Brittany kissed her lips and rolled onto her back to check the time. "I have to get to the greenhouse."

That pulled Santana out of her want to stay in bed. She sat up and stretched her back. "Is it going to be cold or warm?"

Brittany rolled over and looked underneath the bed. She grabbed one of the almanacs that she had gotten to use for her gardening and opened it where her scrap paper bookmark was. She used to finger to find the day, her lips scrunched to the side. "Warm. It'll start to get cold soon."

Santana ran a hand through her hair to try to keep it from being messy. It usually was because when she cut it, she wasn't thinking about style and the blade of her machete was far from ideal. Sometimes she forgot how short it was and started to run her hand through it, only to find her hair ending before her hand was ready for it to.

Then she waited for Brittany to put her book down. The blonde sat still on the end of the bed and Santana took to carefully fixing Brittany's messy ponytail and putting her hair back up. "Good?" she asked.

"Yup," Brittany smiled. She turned around and kissed Santana.

"Gross," Mike mumbled playfully from his place on his bunk two over from theirs. They could see Tina's hair peeking out from the other side of Mike's head.

"Good morning," Brittany smiled at him.

"Good morning," he smiled back before starting to wake up Tina.

She looked over at Quinn and Rachel's bed and saw that it was empty and already made. She stood up and pulled on her boots that were next to Santana's at the end of the bed. She missed her Cheerios sneakers.

These boots were practical and all, but they weren't all that comfortable for all the walking around the greenhouse she did everyday.

"I'm ready for breakfast," a little voice announced.

Santana and Brittany's eyes both whipped to the door where a little blonde girl was running over to them. She ran straight to Santana and hugged her. Then she walked over to Brittany and hugged her.

"Britt's got greenhouse duty today, Ash," Santana said as she straightened her army green tank top. "Do you want to go with her or come with me to breakfast?"

"Breakfast," Ashley stated and sat next to her sister.

Brittany looked over at Santana with a worried look on her face. They didn't know what happened before they arrived. They don't know what happened to Ashley before she got to the base, but the greenhouse scared the living crap out of her. She wouldn't go without Brittany, Santana or her mom.

"Is mom still asleep?" Brittany asked, glancing at the door again to see if her mom was going to come in.

"She already went to the radio," Ashley told them. "Armando said he'd watch me, but he went to sleep."

Brittany nodded. She understood that her mom had learned to use the huge military radio after Santana's mom's radio started accidentally picked up their initial transmissions from Lima. As a Dutch liaison for an international corporation, Mrs. Pierce didn't really have much use for her job skills here and found a comforting usefulness in being able to work a complex radio for days on end.

"Of course he did," Santana rolled her eyes. She was definitely going to have a very serious yell with her brother later. She stood up once her boots were on and held her hand out to Ashley, "C'mon. We can walk with Brittany to the greenhouse and then go meet Quinn for breakfast after patrol."

Ashley nodded and took Santana's hand. Santana grabbed a small rectangular black pouch off of the top of their footlocker and put it in her back pocket.

There wasn't much grass within the confines of the base so dirt kicked up behind roving jeeps and well-worn boots. No one ever thought to water what grass was there when it started being a safe haven for the uninfected few. Since, no one has bothered trying to restore it. Ashley watched her sneakers pad through the dirt toward the large white building at the edge of the complex.

Santana and Ashley stopped outside of the huge greenhouse that had been erected before they arrived and perfected when Brittany and Rachel took over. Santana held Ashley's hand as they watched Brittany wave to them before she disappeared inside.

Santana didn't let go of Ashley's hand as they walked to the place she'd started her patrol everyday since they arrived. The guard at the front gate recognized her and just nodded as she and Ashley walked up the stairs to the walkway that hung a few feet from the top of the front perimeter wall.

Santana's eyes scanned the trees outside of the gates. She didn't like the trees. They hid whatever was behind them. She never knew what was lurking behind the trees. She reached behind herself with her free hand and used her forefinger to flip up the flap of the small black pouch in her pocket. Her fingers dipped insides and extracted a small set of binoculars.

Even with a closer look at the trees she still wasn't satisfied because she didn't know what they were hiding. It made her stomach tight just thinking about it. She lowered her binoculars and narrowed her eyes at the tree line. Fucking trees.

"Can we go eat now?" Ashley asked, like she did every morning that she went with Santana.

She looked down at the little girl next to her. She ruffled the little girl's blonde hair. "Yeah. Let's go." The little girl took her hand and they walked through the complex together.

The mess hall was almost bare that morning. Santana immediately spotted a few people from the Lima group. The group was segregated from the rest of the civilians and sparse military soldiers. Not because they were forced to. They segregated themselves. After relying on each other for so long, the kids of New Directions were reluctant to trust anyone, so they encased what was left of their families within their circle.

"Hey," Quinn looked up at Santana and Ashley as they approached. "I grabbed you some bacon. They were almost out."

"I don't eat bacon," Santana quirked her eyebrow at Quinn. She knew that Quinn knew that too.

"Oh good," Quinn smirked mischievously, "More for me." She picked up a piece of bacon and chomped off the end. Then she looked at the little blonde at Santana's side. "Do you want some bacon Ash?"

Ashley nodded and sat down at the long table next to Quinn.

"I'm gonna go grab some coffee," Santana rubbed her eyes and tossed her binoculars onto the table. "Watch Ash?"

Quinn nodded.

After Santana got some coffee and a banana plus some pancakes for Ashley, she sat down across from the two blondes. "Where is everyone else?"

Quinn checked off. "Kurt and Blaine are walking around. Puck and Lauren are lifting weights. My mom is reading in her bunk. Your mom is sewing the shirt you ripped yesterday. As far as I know, everyone else is still sleep."

"Brittany's in the green house, where I assume Rachel is," Santana added. She waited for Quinn to nod before continuing. "Ashley doesn't like it in there so she came on patrol with me." Patrol was her morning walk around the perimeter of the compound with her binoculars. She didn't trust whoever was supposed to be on patrol so she walked about six times a day. Also this way, she knew where every single person she cared about was. Even though they were supposedly safe, she still felt responsible for making sure they were all okay.

"Hey guys," Finn walked up to them with a plate of eggs and sausage. He was followed by the rest of the Hummel-Hudson clan. They had since adopted Blaine into her family because his parents were still MIA. His brother was in Michigan and was doing well, but he couldn't go up there and her brother couldn't return.

"Hey," Santana nodded to them.

"I almost didn't recognize you again," Burt told Santana. "The hair keeps throwing me off."

Santana smiled and nodded, her hair that naturally flared out at the ends, swaying when her head moved. It was hanging just above her shoulders, shorter than she'd ever had it. Her eyes darted across the table and she locked eyes with Quinn. The day her hair got cut still gives them both nightmares. The second night they were back, Santana attacked a lamp in the civilian barracks because of a nightmare that seemed so real. For that reason, she refused to sleep in the same bed with Brittany for a week because she didn't want to attack her if she lost control again. "Any more info sessions?" Quinn asked Santana as casually as she could.

Santana shook her head, "I'm pretty sure I told them everything I know." The military personnel had been questioning all the members of the New Directions trying to gather as much information as possible. Quinn and Santana were interrogated/questioned the longest because they had more, close contact with the zombiefied masses.

After breakfast, Santana took Ashley with her to the greenhouse. She held the little girl's hand because she knew Ashley was scared of not being able to see around all the pants. It took a little coaxing, but Santana managed to get her inside. As a compromise, Ashley was perched on Santana's shoulders and could see over most of the plants.

"Hi Rachel," Ashley waved to the brunette who was standing in the middle of a two long aisles of plants.

Rachel looked up from the her little purple notebook where she was taking notes and smiled. "Hi Ashley. How are you this morning?"

"Awesome," Ashley grinned and played with Santana's hair. "Santana gave me pancakes."

"That sounds lovely," Rachel smiled, her eyes moving to the former Cheerio and for a moment they shared a smile of adoration for the small girl that represented everything that had been taken away from them.

Santana entered the conversation. "Quinn will be here in a minute with your breakfast."

"Thank you Santana," Rachel told her. Rachel seemed really chipper since they got to the military complex. She was the only one that had really embraced the whole lifestyle and her duties. Of course she was one of the few that came away with no immediate family loss.

"Where's Brittany?" Santana asked, having a sinking feeling because she didn't know where Brittany was.

Rachel pointed to the far side of the greenhouse. "She's with her little experiments over in the back quarter."

Artie rolled around the command building. It wasn't all that impressive. A cinderblock building where Sue and the other commanding officers had offices. He rolled right past Coach Sylvester's office because the door was closed and everyone knew that that's where she chose so sleep.

The harsh light of the florescent bulbs reflected off of the cheap white tiles making the room look stark and unfriendly. As the resident AV geek, he spent a lot of time in here with a few other civilians working on the outdated equipment. Supplies were scarce and supply drops were few and far between. The Midwest had few things to offer in terms of military sufficiency and this small base was not high on the priority list.

He thought he could hear talking in the surveillance room. It was just what used to be an office with a bank of monitors and a counter where they kept their spare parts.

He slowly stopped in front of the counter and looked over all the parts. There were sectioned off in cardboard boxes and bundled by type. He raised his hand over the counter, ready to grab what he was looking for. When he spotted the wire strippers, he pulled them out of their box and looked them over. They were a little worse for the wear, but they still worked.

As he was turning around, he caught sight of the monitors. As someone with his disability, he wasn't privy to some of the things going on around him because he couldn't go very many places. This small military complex definitely wasn't wheelchair accessible. There actually had to be a small ramp made for him so that he could get into the barracks. So sometimes he stopped at the monitors just to get a look at the places he couldn't get to.

Santana sat with Ashley in the greenhouse, on a small wooden table that was used as a place to keep tools, until Brittany was done with her first check of the day. She handed Ashley a few strawberries as they walked out. Rachel was already long gone, having gotten there before Brittany.

"I'm going to go on watch for a little bit," Santana told the two blondes when they got to the entrance to the barracks. She stopped at the door, dirt kicking up under her feet. She hated leaving Brittany and Ashley, but she knew that if something happened someone in the barracks could help them until she got there.

Brittany nodded, understandingly. "Okay." She kissed Santana, "Be careful."

"Always," Santana forced a smile and patted the top of Ashley's head.

When they went inside, Santana turned around and started her walk around the perimeter of the small complex.

"Coach Sylvester!" a panicked banging brought Sue from her journal writings. "Coach Sylvester! There's a-a-a zombie! In the lab!"

At that she jumped out of her chair, hurdled over her desk, and opened the door to her office. Artie sat there in front of her, his eyes wide, his face sweaty and panicked. "The monitors," he sputters out, "I was watching the monitors and in the lab - the hallway - there's a zombie. It bit one of the scientists."

Sue turned around and walked back into her office. She opened a cabinet behind her desk and extracted an M14. "Go down the hall. Tell Captain Verona that we need an evac immediately."

Then Sue made her way to the monitors. She could see them moving around. More than she had anticipated. Her eyes darted from screen to screen looking watching as one innocent scientist was cornered by four of her turned counterparts. Her mouth opened in the scream, but Sue couldn't hear it. But she could feel it. It was like the scream echoed through her bones.

Santana heard a commotion going on in the middle of the main courtyard. She abandoned her walk and trotted out to the edge of the courtyard where she spotted Sam. "What's going on?" Santana frowned and looked off into the distance. Soldiers were running from building to building.

Sam shook his head. "I don't know." He had a rifle hanging in his hand that he probably grabbed as he ran out of the barracks. "I'll go check it out."

"Hold on," Santana started to back away slowly before turning to sprint down the hallway of her barracks. She careened into the bunkroom and bounded over to her bunk. She knelt down on the bottom bunk and extracted her machetes from between the mattress and the slats of the top bunk. She ran back out of the room, sliding their harnesses over her head so that they were firmly and familiarly on her back. It had been so long since she wore them, but the straps fell into their perfect 'X' across her chest.

"What's going on?" Finn called after her, seeing what she had just done and knowing what it meant. He threw his magazine down and jumped up off of his bunk. He grabbed a his shotgun off of the wall and picked up Puck's as well then got a box of shells from his foot locker before following Santana outside.

That was when the sirens started blaring. Panicked people ran out of their barracks and frantically looked around for anyone to tell them what to do or what was going on.

A familiar voice boomed over the loudspeakers throughout the entire complex. "Attention, we are evacuating the complex." Sue's voice was authoritative and firm. "I repeat, we are evacuating the complex. Please make your way to the helicopter pads to be evacuated."

There were soldiers standing at the entrance to the elevated helipad. One of them listened to a radio hooked to his shoulder before shouting at the others as a crowd started to form around them. Mike wheeled Artie as fast as he could toward the mass of people that was starting to form. He slowed to a stop when he saw the helicopters. Six helicopters flew over them, all different kinds and colors. The first one to arrive landed on the roof of the next building next to the helipad. A group of frantic people started to move toward the building.

They stopped when Sue's voice called over them, this time over a bullhorn. "Everyone calm down. There are enough helicopters for everyone." She moved to the front of the group. She looked over the group and saw Mike, Tina and Artie stand She adjusted the rifle slung over her shoulder. "Chang, Chang 2 and Abrams, up here."

Tina and Mike managed to get Artie up the four steps to the helipad where another helicopter was landing. Sue placed a guiding on Mike's shoulder, "Get those two in the chopper and help with crowd control."

Mike nodded firmly and helped Tina get Artie into the helicopter before running back to help.

Santana ran through all the barracks making sure everyone that she cared about had already evacuated. She wasn't sure what was really going on, but there was a good chance it had to do with zombies and she had to make sure that the people she loved were safe.

She cleared out the barracks before running out into the courtyard. That is where she could hear it. Coming from the command building. The moans that had been haunting her for months. The growls and the groans that she had nightmares about. They were inside.

In the other direction she could see helicopters landing on buildings and flat ground. She could hear the yelling and she could make out Coach Sylvester giving out orders. She turned on her heel and started running for the survivors as the first helicopter took off.

"Santana!" she heard her name and skidded to a stop. Finn ran up next to her and they both started jogging to the extraction location.

"What happened?" Santana demanded as they ran.

Finn looked behind them. That's when he caught a glimpse of the first one. One side of a white lab coat drenched in blood, the former human and current zombie struggling to get through the glass of a window. He stumbled over a rock on the ground and caught himself. He jumped to his feet and caught up to a waiting Santana. "Artie said there had to have been an accident in the lab. They got into the mess hall and a bunch of people were... " He didn't want to have to say it.

Santana understood. As she watched the second helicopter take off, she heard Coach yelling at someone else. She saw Rachel's dads board one of the helicopters and help the Hudson-Hummels get on. Santana patted Finn's shoulder, "Go help your mom."

He didn't answer. He just took off running, jumped up the steps just in time to help his mom board. Her eyes scanned the leftover helicopters and then the crowd. She spotted her mom with Brittany's mom in the mess. Armando was standing behind them looking around just as Santana was. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Brittany wasn't in the barracks and she wasn't with their moms. She wanted to know where she was and immediately. She ran over to them, weaving through the small crowd. "Where's Brittany?" she yelled to them.

"We thought she was with you," Brittany's mother's eyes grew wide, "Ashley is with her."

Santana looked at the quickly filling up helicopter on the pad and then scanned the crowd. "I'll go get them. Get on the helicopter." Both of their mothers seem hesitant, but Santana knew she had to get them in the helicopter just in case there weren't enough spots. "Get on the helicopter." She hated to take that authoritative tone with them, but she needed them up in the air so she could focus on Brittany and Ashley.

They both exchanged looks, Brittany's tall, thin mother and her own tiny mother. Maribel stood on her tones and kissed Santana's cheek, whispering a prayer in Spanish before taking Brittany's mother's hand and making her way to the helicopter.

Santana pushed people out of her way and frantically searched until she finally found Brittany. "Where's Ashley?" Santana yelled over the deafening rudders of the helicopter.

Brittany frantically looked around. "I don't know! She ran off!"

"Get on the helicopter!" Santana yelled to her. She didn't say anything after that. She just held Brittany's eyes for a moment before running in the opposite direction. She had a feeling, she knew where Ashley was.

As she ran away from the crowd and the noise, Santana heard footsteps behind her. She glanced to her side and saw Brittany keeping up with her, knowing full well that Brittany could outrun her any day of the week.

"I told you to get on the helicopter," Santana panted as they both ran to the only place they thought Ashley would be.

"I'm not leaving without either one of you," Brittany stated as they ran. Her long legs allowed her to pass Santana as they ducked under the half open bay door of the greenhouse. Ashley hated the greenhouse, but if she thought that Brittany was here, that is where she would go.

Santana unsheathed her machetes for the first time in weeks. It took a moment to adjust her grip on them, but after she did, it felt like she never let them go.

She didn't know the greenhouse or Ashley like Brittany did so she just followed her girlfriend through the menagerie of plants. Neither one called out Ashley's name for fear that she could call back and attract unwanted zombie attention to herself. They could see a few zombies moving around them, but they weren't their main concern at that moment. Their soft footfalls, not slowing the slightest, ran up and down the rows of plants.

Santana saw a hand reach out from the small trees that some of the on-site scientists were trying to grow. She easily sliced off the hand with her right machete as it reached from Brittany before swinging her left at its head. The head fell next to the body in the middle of the small saplings.

Her first zombie kill in weeks. She felt a familiar beast rise up in her and take over. She was back to the way she was when they were stuck in Lima. The protector. The warrior. She was hard and calculating. She was a survivor.

Just as they entered the tall maze of Brittany's experimental sunflowers, they heard a blood-curdling scream. Their run became a sprint toward Ashley's sobbing and screaming.

When they got out of the sunflowers and hurdled over a water tank, the could see the little blonde girl sobbing as two zombies closed in on her from in front and behind.

Santana wished she had a gun. Desperately. But just as she was trying to figure out the best way to take out both zombies at once, one of the zombies' heads explodes, plastering the familiar orangey-grey goo across a shelf of herbs.

Then Brittany raised her arm, never breaking stride. She leveled the pistol in her hand and shot twice. She hit the second zombie once in the stomach and once in the head, sending it crumpling to the ground. She bounded over the lifeless body and scooped up her sister, hugging her tight to her chest and quickly moving her away from the corpses.

Santana looked around to see what caused one of the zombies to spontaneously combust. She spotted Quinn standing on one of the equipment storage lockers, her trusty rifle lowered in her hands. On the ground next to her, Puck was picking off some of the random zombies meandering around with his shotgun.

"Let's go!" Quinn yelled. "The evac is leaving!"

Sam sat on the helicopter next to Mercedes and looked at his knees. "You know I love you right?"

Mercedes nodded, "Sam, what's wrong? They said there's another helicopter coming for the others. They said that they'll be okay. We just have to take off for them to land."

The blonde ran a hand through his hair and nodded. Then he surprised Mercedes with a kiss. It stunned her just enough so that she didn't notice him unbuckle his harness. The helicopter blades started to beat faster against the air. He held her hand in his and slowly pulled out of the kiss.

Then, he suddenly jumped out of his seat. As soon as his feet were firmly on the ground, he wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist and threw him onto the floor of the helicopter cabin. Kurt had to grab onto the pant leg of one of the other helicopter occupants to keep from falling out of the rising helicopter.

Sam brushed his bangs out of his eyes, watching the helicopter ascend into the sky with the sound of a hundred undead moans at his back.

"Shit!" Santana cursed and she jumped up onto the platform, watching the last helicopter start to rev up. It was the farthest away. But she had to try to get Ashley on it. She and Brittany brushed past Sam as they ran toward it, yelling for it to stop.

Quinn however stopped next to her blonde friend. She could see Rachel's eyes peeking from the crowd in the helicopter. Her stomach sank to her feet. She knew that they were no room for her on that helicopter. It was packed and probably already over capacity. She just swallowed and held Rachel's eyes as the helicopter started to lift off of the ground, kicking up all kinds of dust.

Brittany and Santana gave up running when the helicopter was off the ground. They were still too far away and there was no way to get Ashley on the helicopter. However they were stunned when one of the passengers on the helicopter jumped out from at least ten feet off of the ground.

Quinn knew what was happening before she saw it. She had seen Rachel stand up and make her way to the open door. She saw Rachel take a deep breath and jump. She saw Rachel hit the ground and roll. That's when she started running to her.

When she got there, Rachel was dusting herself off. "What do you think you're doing?" Quinn asked, throwing her arms around Rachel in a hug that contradicted her stern tone.

"I thought I lost you once," Rachel shook her head into Quinn's shoulder. "I'm not doing it again."

"I'm sorry," Ashley sobbed onto Brittany's shoulder. "I shouldn't have run away. I got - I got scared."

"Hey its okay," Santana rubbed her back and kissed Ashley's head, "We'll be okay."

Puck looked around the complex. He could see where the zombies had been sequestered. He could hear their moans. He also knew that it would only be a matter of time before the few that had escaped were joined by hundreds more.

"We need food, weapons and transportation," Santana said to the group. She looked back at the sky, wondering where Coach Sylvester went. Why she would just leave? Then she shook herself out of it. It didn't matter. She had a job to do here and now.

No one blinked when she got authoritative. That's how they got through this mess the first time. Sam, Puck, Quinn, and Rachel all nodded and started discussing where they would find the things that they needed.

So the group crouched on the helicopter pads and talked about what they were going to do. Quinn occasionally stood and shot a zombie that had seen them so that it wouldn't draw more to them.

Their first move was to the transportation bay. They needed to know what they had to work with.

On the way Santana kept her machetes drawn and walked in front of Brittany knowing full well that this time they had another handicap. When they were fighting her mind would not only be on Brittany, but on Ashley as well. The Pierce girls were her number one priority.

"Santana!" they heard a voice calling.

She whirled around and saw her brother running toward them. "What's going on?" He jogged up to them shotgun in hand. "I've been looking for you everywhere since you ran off from the helicopters."

"All the helicopters are gone," Santana put on a stoic face. "We're the last ones left."

He swallowed hard. His baby sister didn't even flinch. His face drained of most of its color and he clenched and unclenched his fists. This wasn't something he'd gone through. He and his mother had left Lima immediately and were in the first wave of people gone.

She looked around behind him, "We have to keep moving."

The transportation bay was depressingly empty. It was like the evacuation started hours before everyone was notified. There was one vehicle left, a black suburban. Armando ran over an checked for the keys and found them in the ignition. He turned on the battery and saw that it half a quarter tank of gas.

"Hey!" Quinn called, "There's a gas tank over here." She stood next to a large blue barrel on the side of the bay. She kicked it and saw a ripple through a small hole. "It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

"I'll stay here with the truck," Puck told them as he went to grab the gas hose. "Bring the food and the weapons. We gotta split quick."

Everyone agreed. Santana sent Sam, Quinn and Rachel to get the weapons while Santana, Brittany, Ashley, and Armando took off for the food. They slowly crept down the hallways, Ashley clung to Brittany, her arms and legs wrapped around her big sister. Her head was buried in Brittany's neck. Brittany had one arm on her sister and one hand wrapped around a gun.

Armando brought up the rear, keeping a close eye on his sister in the front. He had never seen her like this. She was laser focused. Every little sound quirked her ears. He could see something was different. Like she was different from the girl he had been hanging out with for the past few weeks.

He readjusted his grip on the shotgun in his hand. "Where are we going to go?" He was new to this zombie apocalypse thing. He and his mom were among the first people into the camp. He didn't see some of the horrors he knew were keeping his sister up at night.

"They're going north," Santana stated. "Up into Canada. I don't know exactly where but that doesn't matter. We just have to get the fuck out of here." There was a lonely zombie walking down the hallway toward them. "Britt."

Armando raised his shotgun, but lowered it when he saw Santana walk right up to it. Brittany pressed Ashley's face into her shoulder, trying to cover her ears as best she could and make it so she couldn't see.

Armando was surprised when Santana pointed the machete in her right hand right at the zombie. It continued to move toward her, it's mouth open trying to get at her. She glanced behind her to make sure that Ashley wasn't looking when she planted her feet. The zombie started to impale itself on the machete sticking out toward its chest. Santana let it take another step forward the first three inches of her blade burying itself in it's chest. Then she whipped her left machete over the right one and easily severed the zombie's head.

"I hope Quinn remembers my sharpening stone," Santana muttered as she kicked the carcass and it's severed head to the side of the hallway. She paused to examine the blade of her left machete. "That should have been way easier."

Armando stood in awe of his sister's nonchalance.

"San, let's go," Brittany nodded toward the doorway of the mess hall that was in front of them.

Santana nodded and moved to the door. She kicked it open and stepped inside. It looked like that very few of the zombies had made their way into the mess hall.

"Armando," Santana called. "Stay with Brittany. I'm going to check the kitchen. It's small and I don't want anyone getting sliced or peppered on accident." She yanked her bandana over her mouth and made her way through the door to the kitchen and storage area.

Armando was uneasy next to Brittany and Ashley. He wasn't used to this.

"Relax," Brittany cooed.

Armando was sure Brittany was talking to Ashley, but he turned to see her looking at him. He just gave her a jittery nod and shifted his weight from one foot to another.

Some of the zombies started making their way toward them and Armando raised his gun. "Hey," Brittany stopped him, "You're too far away. You'll just waist ammo that way." She used her hand with her pistol in it to push down the barrel of Armando's gun. "Relax."

She tilted her head down. "Hey Ash, I'm going to shoot now okay? Don't be scared. Remember what Santana always says."

"She won't let anything bad happen to us," Ashley murmured against her sister's shirt.

"Right," Brittany kissed her head and covered her ear. She raised her gun and squeezed the trigger. The closest zombie fell to the ground.

Not a second later did Santana appear in the serving window of the kitchen, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Brittany called back.

"Well you can get back here. I found a cart we can load things on," Santana stated and disappeared.

Armando, Santana, and Brittany loaded a cart down with MREs and canned food as Ashley sat in the middle of the cart, a fort of food being built around her. Armando secured the food with some bungee cords he found and looked down at the little girl. "Do you want to get out or ride?"

"Ride," she nodded firmly much too serious for a little girl who was about to ride on a cart.

They made their way back to the transportation bay to find that the weapons were already being loaded up.

"Where's Sam?" Santana asked as she pushed the cart over to the group and picked up Ashley out of the food.

"He's keeping watch," Rachel stated. "He found a gun thing that he's playing with." She moved her finger in a circle and added, "It spins."

"He found a mini gun?" Puck asked, throwing a back of weapons into the back of the truck. "Is it cool if I go look?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "No. We're leaving. Go get Sam. Bring the gun."

"On the roof?" Quinn asked as she helped Armando put the food into the back of the SUV.

Santana nodded and looked around for something to tie it down with. She glanced at Brittany who was getting into the back of the SUV next to the food with Ashley. There was a tiny space for them, but there wasn't really anywhere else for them to sit. Santana knew that someone else would probably have to get back there with them.

Before she could say anything, Rachel crawled into the back with them and smiled at Ashley who was pressed to her sister in the back. "Hey Ashley."

Armando closed the back of the SUV and walked over to Santana. Clearly she was the one to ask questions to at this point so he put his hands on his hips, "What do you need me to do?"

"Find something to tie the mini gun to the rails on the roof," Santana crossed her arms. He nodded and took off. She was about to make her way to the door when Sam and Puck quickly moved in with the mini gun.

"They broke out!" Puck yelled. "They're fucking everywhere. We gotta go."

Armando ran over and helped the guys put the mini gun on top of the SUV. Puck stayed on top of the SUV when everyone was crawling down and getting into the SUV. Santana looked up at him, "What the fuck are you doing? Get down."

"There's a fuckton on them outside of the bay door. We need this to get out," he told her solemnly. "Open the bay door and get in the car. We gotta blow this popcicle stand."

Santana thought it over. She was used to being the one taking the risks. She didn't know about someone else doing it. But she didn't have a chance to think about it because Sam hit the button to open the bay door.

Everyone scrambled into the vehicle and Puck laid down on the roof so that his feet were pushing against a railing to keep himself steady. He let the gun spin up as the door rose and he could hear the moans of the zombies getting louder.

Santana pressed down on the gas wondering where all these zombies that Puck mentioned were at. Then she saw them. It was astonishing that the numbers had grown from a few to at least a hundred that were blocking the road on the way out.

Ashley dove into Brittany's arms when the firing started. The zombies in front of them just started to fall down. Santana slowly drove toward them before going around the mass. The crunch of the bones under the tires was sickening, but Santana floored it and prayed that Puck could hang on.

The shooting stopped so she slowed down and was about to jump out when there were a loud banging on her window. "Keep moving!" Puck yelled through the window.

Santana glanced in the side view mirror and punched the gas. She saw Puck's leg swing off the side and then his boots hooked onto the top of the windshield as the shooting started again.

She turned to the gate out of the complex, knowing that there was really only one way out and it wasn't the gate. So she made a sharp left turn and glanced up at the roof. She muttered to herself. "Hold on Puckerman." Then she slammed on the gas and broke through the chain length fence used for processing new rescues.

Once outside, Santana pulled off to the side of the road as Puck continued to shoot. She hopped out of the SUV and looked behind them. The hoard was still following them out of the hole in the fence and Puck was still mowing them down as they came out.

She stood up on the running board and tapped Puck's leg. He looked down at her and stopped shooting. There was a whirl of the gun spinning to a stop as she looked up, "Get in the car."

He looked up at the ribbon of bullets and saw only a few left. "Let me finish this out."

"Can I do it?" Sam asked from the other side of the car.

Puck looked at Santana who nodded. He slid off the top of the car let Sam get up there to shoot. No matter how much shit they were in or how mature they had to be at time, they were still kids and they liked to shoot cool guns and pretend.

Once the bullets were gone they dumped the gun off on the side of the road and took off for Canada.

The highway was packed but the access road was almost empty so they cruised along the road, all in silent contemplation before Ashley asked when they would get there.

So a few minutes later, Rachel was sitting in the back reading to Emily who was nodding off in Brittany's lap. She was apparently the only one that grabbed something that wasn't completely essential. She had grabbed a small hardback book when she first heard the sirens.

Quinn was very familiar with the book. She was having a hard time when they first got to the compound and couldn't sleep. So Rachel offered to read to her. At first she thought it was stupid and it only worked for kids, but they tried anyway. And Quinn slept well for the first time in the long time as Rachel read her the first chapter of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.

"Where are we going?" Puck asked Santana quietly in the front seat. He leaned close to her. "Do we even know?"

Santana shook her head. "I just heard north. So we're going north. I wish we had a fucking radio or something," she spat angry with herself for no remembering something that was so essential to their first rescue.

"Hey," Puck whispered, "Chill. If you freak out, everyone in this car is going to freak the fuck out. You're our leader."

Santana took a moment to center herself. "You're right. Okay. Next town we stop. You and I are going to get a map and supplies. We find a radio and try to figure out how to use it. We have all of the brawn and none of the brains in this car. We should avoid as many big towns as possible with all the stalled cars and lots of zombies. We'll just make our way through small towns until we get to Canada I guess."

"We have plenty of brains," Puck said, "Of course I'm all brawn, but Brittany and Rachel can grow anything. You and Quinn can strategize anything. Sam can fix anything. I haven't seen what your brother can do, but I'm sure he can do something. We got this. We've done it before."

Santana thought it over and mulled it around. "Yeah. We're going to be okay."

"I think at the next town we should try for some chicken wire or something," he leaned back in his seat, knocking his knuckles at his passenger windows. "No telling what these are made of."

She nodded. "We need to make a list so we don't forget anything."

Rachel reached over the back of the seat she was leaning on and rested her arm around Quinn's collarbone. The blonde tensed at first, but recognized who it was after a beat. She brought her hand up to Rachel's forearm and held on. They never thought they'd have to go through something like this again.

"So Canada?" Sam asked, leaning forward between the front seats.

Santana's eyes were constantly checking the gas tank levels. It was times like these that she missed the rest of the group. They had a great dynamic and everyone had something they were good at. Finn could siphon gas from anything. Tina had the uncanny ability to make anything edible. Kurt had the ability to fix any article of clothing and get even the deepest zombie goo stains out. Everyone had something they were the best at and something that they did better than everyone else.

Santana looked in the review mirror and caught her brother's eyes. She didn't know how well he was going to do, not if but when his combat skills were tested. It was too much for some people. At least when they were in Lima they had somewhere that was safe for them to go and protect the weaker warriors. Here there was no place to leave the weak.

Her eyes moved farther back into the SUV where she saw Brittany and the top of Ashley's head lulling against her sister's chest. She felt her stomach get tight with worry. Having Ashley with them changed the game dramatically.

Santana returned her full attention to the road. "Puck, can you find something to write with?"

He dug around for a few seconds before he found a pen, but no paper. "I can write on my arm."

"Write down everything that we have to get when we stop," Santana stated. "I don't want to forget anything this time."

Santana was getting complacent as she drove. There wasn't much of anything on the highway really. The farther they got from cities, the less cars there were. She'd gone at least a hundred miles without seeing any sign of a zombie.

Just as she was about to turn to Puck and ask him to read the list back to her, she saw a smoke column rising from the horizon.

"What the fuck is that?" Santana asked herself, but it managed to rouse everyone else in the car who had started to fall asleep. She slowed the SUV down as cars started to show up on the road. There looked to be a huge wreck up ahead with cars stacked behind it.

"Where are we?" Puck asked, looking around.

Armando leaned forward and put his hand on his sister's seat, "Dios Mio, that's Toledo."

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck shit shit shit fuck fuck fuck," Santana spewed out, "We can't go in there." She slowed the SUV more so that it stopped a hundred meters from the beginning of the wreckage. "There are a fuckload of those little fuckers in there. It's Lima times a million."

"Dude," Puck shook his head and looked over at the gauges, "We don't have enough gas to go around."

Santana took a deep breath. "Motherfucker."

"Why is Santana saying bad words?" Ashley whispered to Brittany.

Brittany stroked Ashley's hair, "Don't worry about it. You know how she gets." However, she new that this wasn't normal Santana cursing. This was zombie apocalypse, completely fucked kind of cursing.

"We can just go siphon from the cars," Sam offered. "Quinn can get up on top of a truck and snipe and Puck can siphon while I watch his back with a shotgun."

"What can I do?" Armando asked.

"Stay here with the girls," Puck told him and picked up the shotgun that was next to him.

"Do you have a problem with me?" Armando asked Puck.

Puck rolled his eyes, "No. You just need to stay here."

"Why?" Armando demanded, "You're being a dick."

Puck started to turn around in his seat, but Santana grabbed his shoulder and turned around to look at Armando, "Let it go. I need you to stay here with Brittany and Ashley, okay?"

He exhaled and nodded, "Fine."

Santana held his eyes. "Can you do it? For real."

He nodded firmly, "Yeah, don't worry about them okay?"

"Get in the driver's seat," Santana opened her door and slid out. When Armando got out of the car, Santana waited for him to get into the front seat. "Turn the car around and if there's a few zombies just chill and take them out. If you get overwhelmed, take off. Stay with the highway and pull over when it's clear. We'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking down at the intensity in his sister's face.

She unsheathed her machetes and rolled her neck. "Yes. Nothing better happen to them." She tapped the broad side of her left machete to his chest. She didn't smile. She didn't wink, she just walked past him to the backseat.

She sheathed her right machete and got onto the backseat on her knees facing the back. "Kiss for luck?"

Ashley kissed Santana's cheek and Brittany kissed her lips. "Be careful."

Santana nodded. "I love you." She didn't wait for a response. She flashed a smile to Ashley and got out.

Rachel turned around when there was a tap on the window by her head. She smiled when she saw Quinn. The blonde wiped off the window with her green jacket sleeve before she kissed it. Rachel kissed it back and then watched Quinn walked back to the guys.

"Are you guys ready for this again?" Quinn asked as the group of scavengers stood at the edge of the wreckage. The air smelled like burning oil and spilled gasoline.

"Yup," Sam nodded, shouldering his shotgun. "We just need a hose."

"Awesome," Santana nodded. She pulled her bandana up over her mouth and lowered her sunglasses. "Let's move quick. Watch your feet."

They all nodded and walked to the first mangled car.

"Where are we going?" Ashley asked as Armando did a U-turn in the car.

He turned around in his seat and put the car in park, "Nowhere. We're just turning around."

"Okay," she sat back in her seat. "I miss Santana."

"She's only been gone for a minute," Brittany offered.

Ashley nodded, "I know."

"Quinn," Santana stood on top of a gray sedan and called to her friend. The blonde looked up at Santana and saw the brunette pointing to an eighteen-wheeler.

Quinn nodded and started to make her way toward it.

"Yahtzee!" Puck called when he found a utility truck. There was a spool of plastic hose on the back of it as well as a few gas cans. He picked up the gas cans. "These still have gas in them," he told Sam who was standing in the bed of the truck with the shotgun.

"Awesome," Sam nodded. He could make out a few zombies making their way toward them, but they were slow and having trouble getting over and around the cars. "Just hurry." He watched the closest zombie and was trying to calculate how much longer they had before the first zombie arrived when it's head disappeared and it's body fell to the ground. He looked to where Quinn was and saw her pull the bolt back on her gun, ejecting the empty casing.

"You're getting scary good at that," Sam called to her.

She smiled at him and looked back at the horizon. She raised her gun and looked through the scope. "You guys may want to hurry. There's a lot of them coming."

Santana appeared next to the eighteen-wheeler. No one really kept track of her, but she now had a duffle bag in her hand. "How many?"

"Twenty or thirty," Quinn started to count through her scope.

Santana bit her lip. "Fuck. Okay." She hopped up on a car and yelled, "Let's go Puckerman!"

He looked down at the hose that was in the gas tank of the car in front of him. He was almost done filling up the empty water jug he found in the back of the work truck. "Alright!" he yelled back. He pulled the hose out of the tank and grabbed the jug and the two gas cans in his hand.

Santana watched as her friends all safely made their way back toward the front of the pack of cars. There was something all too familiar about what was happening. She remembered doing this in Lima. She remembered having Mike and Finn with her instead. Something about it didn't feel right.

She held Quinn's gun as she got off of the top of the truck and joined the group in jogging back to their SUV.

Rachel was immensely relieved to see Puck, Quinn, Sam, and Santana hurdle over the last car and run to them. Puck immediately went to filling up the gas tank and Santana opened the driver's side door where her brother was. "Out."

He started to argue, but remembered that this wasn't a normal circumstance and his sister wasn't just being a brat. He slid out of the seat and got into the backseat behind her.

"Britt," Santana looked back at the blonde. "I need you up here."

Brittany nodded. She looked at Ashley. "Do you want to sit between Sam and Armando or do you want to stay with Quinn and Rachel?"

"Sam," Ashley nodded.

So when the gas was emptied into the tank and Brittany was in the passenger's seat. Santana pulled away from Toledo.

The duffel bag Santana got was at Brittany's feet and when Santana told her to open it, she saw a map on top.

"Get us to Canada," Santana said.

Brittany nodded and unfolded the map.

Ashley leaned forward so that her head was sticking up between Brittany and Santana. "I'm hungry."

"Rachel," Santana called into the cargo area where Rachel and Quinn were sitting. "Can you get Ashley something to eat?"

Rachel smiled. "Of course. Miss Ashley what would you like?"

Sam helped Ashley eat her protein bar and drink her water as the car kept moving. She fell asleep on Sam's shoulder and he put his arm around her. He missed Stacy and Stevie. He hoped that they made it out okay on the helicopters.

"In a few miles there's going to be a little road off the access road, turn right," Brittany told Santana as she wrote on the map with the pen Puck found. "It doesn't really have a name on here. There aren't any big cities on that road. Just a little town where we can stop for more gas and coats."

"Coats?" Puck asked.

"It's cold in Canada," Brittany stated. "That's why we're going there. That's why everyone is going there."

Sam asked, "Do we have any idea where everyone else went?"

Santana felt bad for him. He had no idea where his family or his girlfriend was. Santana's mom was the only person missing for her. She had her brother and Brittany. "No, but we'll find them."

He looked down at the little blonde girl asleep in his arms and for a moment it felt just like he was holding Stacy while she slept.

* * *

Mike shifted his parka around until he could zip it up as he ran. The small village they were all relocated to was small enough that he could run from one side of town to the other without freezing to death. He wasn't used to weather like this. Ohio got cold, but this was bone chilling if you stayed out too long.

Finn stepped out after him in only a simple hoodie. He nodded to Mike before they made their way down the snow-covered road. Indentations in the snow had been made by military vehicles making their way down the road, two perfectly parallel lines in the snow.

They walked into a small rickety old building. It was supposed to be storage, but it had become a meeting place - a place for planning and strategy.

Inside, seated on various boxes and chairs, most of the other people meeting there were seated around a small space heater. Artie was off to the side, playing with the knobs of an ancient looking radio. A makeshift table made out of a spool was covered in maps that were written all over. 'X's and circles stretch from one side of the map to the other.

Tina stood up to greet Mike and Finn took a seat next to Lauren. Coach Sylvester was standing over the maps with Santana's mom and Brittany's mom was standing next to Artie listening through some headphones with her hands on her hips.

Kurt was going through the forgotten supplies with Blaine, categorizing and cataloging.

Santana's mom pointed to a place on the map. "What about here?"

Finn stood up to get into the discussion about where the people the got left behind might go. Finn shook his head, "Santana doesn't like to go to big cities."

Sue looked up at him and nodded, "So they had to go around."

"How do we know they're traveling north?" Santana's mom asked rubbing her red eyes. She hadn't slept since they arrived in this remote place.

"They know that zombies move slower in cold," Sue explained patiently. She knew that this woman had two children out in the middle of zombieland and she couldn't help, but sympathize. "As far as zombie knowledge, Santana is an expert." Sue placed a hand on Maribel's shoulder, trying to get her to understand that if anyone could make it, her daughter could.

"Santana was our leader," Finn told the short woman. "She used to spend hours watching them so she'd know how they think. She'll bring them back."

* * *

Santana found the small road that Brittany found on the map and pulled onto the two-lane road. She was trying to narrow down what part of Canada they were going to have to go to when they got up there. She didn't know much about Canada, but she knew a lot about zombies. Zombies didn't do well in the cold. No blood flow meant no body heat. They couldn't keep themselves or their muscles or their joints warm enough to move. The exact opposite, she found, was true during the unfortunate incident where she thought moltovs would be a good idea in fighting zombies. Instead, it just made faster, flaming zombies.

She also knew that there were more people in southern Canada than the rest of it. More people meant more zombies so they were going to have to go as North as they could and possibly as West as they could.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a warm hand in hers, threading their fingers through hers. Santana glanced over at Brittany who was now holding her hand. She picked up Santana's hand and kissed her fingers. "You're worrying a lot."

Santana nodded. It was a given in their current situation.

"We got out of this the last time," Brittany assured her. "We'll be fine."

Santana nodded again. She didn't want to say anything to the contrary. She hoped that they would.

Trees had started growing over the road, causing a canopy over the barely paved pathway. It scared Santana because it gave her a false sense of security that she knew was settling in. She was so used to living in a state of low alert that she was having a hard time getting back into her previous high alert level.

In the cargo area of the vehicle, Quinn was laying on Rachel, her back resting against Rachel's front. Rachel played with Quinn's hands as they drove. She looked down Quinn's body at her feet that were pressed against the back window. She could still see the scars from the bbs that once ripped up the flesh in order to save her. She kissed Quinn's cheek.

"You okay?" Quinn asked, tilting her head back up toward Rachel.

Rachel kissed her softly on the lips, "As long as you're with me." Rachel ran a hand over Quinn's stomach and added, "You need warmer clothes. Shorts aren't going to cut it in Canada."

"I was in the shower when the alarms were going off," Quinn offered lamely. "This was the first thing I grabbed."

"At least you didn't come naked," Rachel teased. "Then the zombies wouldn't be the only ones who wanted to eat you."

Quinn's mouth dropped open and she laughed in surprise. Rachel was still coming on to her when they were driving away from a city full of zombies that would want to rip them to shreds.

Puck's fingers were aimlessly tapping against his leg. He knew that no one could save them this time. Burt, Sue, and Lauren weren't in a hummer coming after them. Not even as hard as he was wishing.

The silence in the car was broken by a humming. Puck turned to see Sam moving his head a little as he hummed. Puck smirked and sang along. "I'm gonna make a change for one in my life."

Sam joined him in the next verse. "It's gonna feel real good. Gonna make a difference, gonna make it right."

"As I turn up the collar of," Brittany sang, taking Santana's free hand in both of her hands. "My favorite winter coat. This wind is blowing my mind."

"See the kids in the street," Quinn and Rachel join in together, "Without enough to eat. Who am I to be blind pretending not to see their needs."

Everyone was quiet as Sam sang the next verse. It was nice to have something to do in the car that had nothing to do with planning or zombies. They could just be them, half of a glee club and a bunch of kids.

The trees on the side of the road gave way to huge open fields. They'd see the occasional zombie stumbling through some tall grass, but nothing that they stopped to worry about. According to Brittany they were almost to the town anyway.

Santana almost didn't see the old wooden sign declaring the city limits for the tiny town. She sat up straighter in her seat and leaned forward. Puck reached over and put his hand on his shotgun.

A few buildings rose from the flat earth, but most of the town was made of houses and farms. "Where do I stop?" Santana asked. She scanned through the buildings and on the sidewalks. She saw things that she hadn't really seen much of unless she had already been there. She spotted about four dead zombies on the sidewalk. "What the fuck?"

"They're dead already," Quinn said from the backseat.

That made everyone a little uneasy. It means something else was killing them. Maybe other people. Maybe animals. They'd never really thought about it, but the zombies were animalistic enough to attack each other. Which meant only the strongest of the zombies survived.

"Maybe there are other people here," Armando suggested. His voice was hopeful.

Santana looked over at Brittany. They shared a worried glance. They'd never encountered other people outside of the compound and things like zombie infestation changes people. They had no idea how to handle hostile people that are alive.

"There's a store up there," Brittany pointed.

A few blocks forward on the eerily deserted street was a small mom and pop store. The red roof was made of tin and it's brick facade was fading in the sun.

Santana's heart started racing as she slowly drove forward. "Um," she was trying to come up with some kind of plan. Usually it was easy, but something about this place creeped her out beyond words.

"San?" Brittany asked softly.

Santana felt Brittany's fingers glide over her knuckles in an attempt to calm her. She cleared her throat and that seemed to help her mind as well. "Puck and I will go inside. Britt, get in the driver's seat. We don't really know what's out there." She was finally back in her leadership mode. She turned to Brittany, "If anything happens, drive off."

Brittany bit her lip. She didn't want to leave Santana. Especially what happened with her and Quinn.

"I have to go potty," Ashley said quietly, rubbing her eyes as she woke up from her nap.

Santana finally pulled to a stop outside of the store and let her head fall forward on the steering wheel. She murmured a curse to herself and took a deep breath. She moved the SUV a little farther away from the store and into the middle of the street. "Okay so, Armando into the driver's seat. Brittany help Ashley pee, just open the front and back doors and she can do her business. Quinn watch the back, Sam watch to the left, Armando straight ahead. Rachel get out with Quinn and watch the store. Puck and I will move as quickly as possible in and out of the store." She looked behind her and caught everyone's eyes making sure that they understood their directions. Then she opened her door and got out.

Puck led Santana to the broken glass door of the store. He didn't bother opening it because it was little more than a thin metal frame at that point. The glass crunched under his boots as he took the first step inside.

A light wind blew the blonde wisps of hair out of Quinn's face as she watched the road they had just come from. She adjusted her rifle under her arm and looked next to her at Rachel. Rachel was concentrated on her job of watching the store. So far Quinn didn't hear anything out of the ordinary coming from the small building so she turned her attention back to where she was supposed to be looking.

She raised her rifle up against her shoulder to get a better look through the scope. She didn't know why she was so good with that thing, but it made her feel better that she was proficient in killing zombies one way. She scanned the horizon and then the street. She could make out the blurry, far off lumps of twice dead zombies on the sidewalk that they had seen before. She lowered her rifle and took a deep breath. She didn't know why they bothered her so much, but they did.

"This place creeps me out man," Sam muttered to Armando through the open door.

Armando nodded in agreement although he didn't see much wrong with it. It seemed to be a ghost town. No people and no zombies trying to eat him. He was okay with that.

"I don't know about this place," Puck muttered as he and Santana went separate ways, going down different isles through the store.

Santana shook her head. This whole town gave her a bad feelings. She carefully stepped over the dumped over shelves and the ruined merchandise on the floor. It looked like people had already stopped her to resupply. There wasn't much left for them to sift through.

"I got a backpack over here," Puck called. "Can you watch my back while I grab some of this stuff?"

Santana easily made her way over to him and stood next to him as he threw some basic camping supplies into the backpack. She looked up at the long skinny window that was too high for them to see out. It was their only source of light. She didn't like that either. She wanted to be able to see outside.

Puck checked the list on his arm. "We need some first aid stuff and more clothes which I don't think we're going to find here. Then gas."

Santana nodded. "Let's get out of here."

Rachel spotted Puck and Santana step out of the store and let go of the breath she was holding. "They're coming."

Everyone looked over at them, making their way out with a lone backpack.

"They didn't have any clothes," Puck scratched the back of his head and tossed the backpack into the SUV.

"We good?" Santana asked Ashley and Brittany as she walked up.

Ashley nodded and climbed back into the car. Brittany nodded as well and crossed her arms , looking up and down the street.

Santana placed her hand on Brittany's upper arm and kissed her cheek. "Let's go."

Everyone got into the car and Sam drove slowly down the empty streets. "Have you guys seen any cars?"

No one answered because the answer was much too disturbing. Everywhere they went there were empty cars. Here, there weren't even cars in the driveways of the houses they passed.

"Maybe everyone made it out," Armando offered hopefully.

Santana nodded. "Yeah." But she wasn't really agreeing. In her experience, its highly unlikely.

"There's a store," Armando pointed out a large superstore off the side of the road.

"We're not stopping there," Santana shook her head and leaned forward over Sam's shoulder. "It's too big and that is where people go when shit blows up. I'd like to get out of here without having to fight anything." She looked forward, "Look for a smaller store."

"When are we going to see mommy?" Ashley asked Brittany.

Brittany opened her mouth, but couldn't really find the words. She didn't know what to tell her. She didn't know if it would be a few days, or weeks, or months. She didn't know how long it would take to get to Canada and actually track down help.

"We'll get there as soon as we can," Santana told her, stepping in where Brittany clearly wasn't ready. Brittany was crestfallen, remembering that her mom was somewhere safe and her little sister was with them, knowing that her little sister was going to see things that she couldn't unsee. She wanted to protect her as much as possible, but she didn't know how. She was still just a child herself.

Santana seemed to know without looking that Brittany was upset. She reached around Ashley and put her hand on Brittany's shoulder.

Sam pulled to a stop in front of a resale shop and looked around. "There's a gas station across the street." He turned in his seat to look at Santana.

She nodded in approval and took a deep breath. "C'mon Armando. Puck cover Sam. Quinn, get on the roof of the SUV and see what you can find out. Rachel, shotgun."

Armando shifted the shotgun in his hand again as he followed Santana around the store and they stuffed clothes into a beach bag that was on sale by the front counter.

"Should we check the register?" he asked as Santana examined a puffy pinkie children's coat.

"For what?" Santana asked. "Money doesn't mean anything anymore."

He swallowed and knew that she was right. He must have not been thinking clearly. He watched his sister as she shoved the coat into the bag. As he watched her, her head snapped up to look in the direction of the back of the store. He started trembling as he finally heard the soft moans that she had already heard.

Santana slowly drew one of the machetes and then looked at her brother. "What do you do first?"

His eyes darted from the door to the back of the shop to his sister and back. His shaking hands raised his gun at the door.

She moved to the side and slung the beach bag over her shoulder. "Good. Now don't look at me, watch the door."

He shifted his feet and his heart raced as the zombie made it's appearance in the doorway. What used to be a woman, now a mangled piece of undead flesh, started to slink toward them. It's dislocated arm hung at it's side as it let it's gaping mouth lead the way toward them.

"What are you waiting for?" Santana asked watching her brother carefully.

He pulled the trigger on the shotgun almost immediately. His shifty hold threw off his aim and it only served to pepper the zombie's face with bbs causing a few to imbed in the rotting skin. It continued to move toward them, not even missing a step when the gun went off.

"Armando!" Santana barked, "What are you waiting for?"

He panicked, his heart racing as he pumped the shotgun and shot again and again and again. Finally the body lay on the ground, not longer moving, fractured in many pieces against the wooden floor.

Santana took a deep breath and looked at her brother who was as white as a ghost. "C'mon let's get out of here."

Just as they turned to leave, a figure appeared in the doorway. "Everything okay?" Puck asked, a shotgun under his arm.

Santana nodded. "Yeah." She grabbed her brother's arm and pulled him out of the store with Puck trailing them.

Sam looked over the hood of the car on the opposite side of the street. He smiled widely at Santana, "I did it. I got it everywhere, but we're all filled up."

Santana faked a smile of approval and nodded at him. Then she instructed everyone to get into the car while she pulled Armando to the back of the car.

"Look," Santana met the eyes of her older brother. "You weren't in any danger there. That zombies was nothing. I could have taken it out with one swing. I need you to get it together. This is scary and it fucking sucks, but I already have people that I have to look out for. I need to know that by big brother can have my back, okay?"

He swallowed, suddenly feeling like ashamed for not being able to think in the store. Here was his little sister, leading a small band of survivors across a country and he couldn't take out one little zombie without help. He clenched his jaw and nodded. "Sorry."

"It's okay," she reached up and hugged him. "It takes some getting used to."

He held Santana around her waist and just felt her breath against him. It was nice considering that at one point he thought he'd never see her again.

She pulled back first, her hands on his shoulders, "Alright. We are going to drive to fucking Canada and we're going to get back to mom okay? And everyone is going back to their families."

He nodded and watched Santana move to the front seat of the SUV before getting in himself.

"Anything Q?" Santana asked, looking over the seat at Quinn.

The blonde exhaled, "Just those creepy ass," she paused when she saw Ashley turn around to listen too. "things we saw as we drove into town. I saw three more in the parking lot of the movie theatre. I don't know what's going on."

Santana nodded, remembering the lifeless zombie corpses that were on the sidewalk when they drove into town. She turned straight in her seat as Sam started to SUV and took off. Her eyes mindlessly traced the lines on the back of the seat where the material connected and folded in on itself.

They got onto a small farm to market road and Quinn and Rachel started tinkering with the small radio that they had nabbed. The only sound in the car for the longest time was the sound of tools clinking around in the back.

Ashley asked Armando a question about a passing tree and soon they were talking to each other on one side of the middle seat and Brittany was leaning against Santana on the other side. Brittany looked up at Santana and quietly asked, "What are you thinking?"

Santana took a deep breath. "We need to wire the windows."

Puck was apparently listening and turned around in his seat, "Do you want to stop at the next farm or whatever?"

Santana nodded, her arm around Brittany holding tighter.

He turned back around to help Sam search for an appropriate place to stop and armor their vehicle.

Brittany pushed her feet down against the floor of the car, getting her lips closer to Santana's ear and whispered, "What were you really thinking about?"

"Those zombies," Santana whispered back, pressing her forehead to the side of Brittany's head, "The ones on the sidewalk and the ones Quinn saw." She pulled back and looked at Brittany for a brief moment before looking out the window again.

Brittany squeezed Santana around her middle. She kissed Santana's cheek and tried to comfort her by just being there. She knew why the dead zombies worried Santana. She also knew that Santana had switch back into full on leader mode which meant that she wasn't going to do anything to help herself process things. She was just going to worry about everyone else and crush her own fears.

* * *

Brittany's mom took a sip of her instant coffee from the styrofoam cup. She pressed the scan button and sighed. She'd been listening to nothing but static for days, but she wasn't going to give up. She had two little girls out there in the middle of hell and she wasn't going to stop listening until she found them.

She watched the red numbers on the panel turn from 01 to 02 to 03 and so on. When it cycled all the way through, she'd change frequencies and press the scan button again. Sometime she would hear something that she thought sounded like someone talking and listen to it for a few minutes before she decided she was hearing things. She wrote down the frequency and the channel number anyway.

* * *

It wasn't two minutes later that they pulled down the long driveway of a farm just outside of the town. Sam slowed the SUV to a quiet roll as the driveway turned to dirt and the house grew near. Behind the house a wooden barn stood behind it. With a tin roof, the barn was larger than the house itself.

"I like the looks of that," Puck said, picking up his rifle and checking the magazine.

Santana looked out the window. She scanned the horizon and saw some more carcasses laying on the ground, a cloud of flies waving above them. She squinted a little bit and could make out what used to be cows, but were now mutilated parts of flesh and organs.

When she looked back at the other occupants of the car, she could see all of them looking back at her. She nodded to herself. Right, she was the leader. She looked around the car. "Sam and Puck with me. Quinn, on the roof. Let's get closer to the barn and we'll check it out."

Sam drove a little more purposefully toward the barn and pulled about thirty yards from it's huge sliding doors.

Santana glanced at Brittany. She knew that her girlfriend wanted to go with her, but she seemed to realize that she needed to stay with Ashley. The blonde kissed her and told her that she loved her before Santana opened the door and slid out.

Armando got out of the car and watched Puck, Sam, and Santana take the first few careful steps. The large doors were closed in front of them and Sam and Puck looked at each other before Puck took hold of a cold metal handle to pull it open.

Santana listened for any noises inside, but she couldn't hear any. She wasn't going to take a chance and unsheathed her machetes anyway. When Puck pulled the door open, Santana slipped inside and looked around the dusty space. The only light was coming from the barn door so apart from the sliver of light, making a narrow path in front of her, she couldn't see much.

"Sam get the other door," she said to the boy who had walked in behind her.

He ducked back outside and the boys opened the barn doors as wide as they could. Light poured in, illuminating the tools and equipment as well as the loft above a bright orange tractor.

She looked back at the SUV were everyone, but Quinn's eyes were on her. Quinn was looking through her scope in the opposite direction.

Santana turned back to the barn and scanned it again. There was nowhere really for a zombie to hide, not that they were smart enough to hide. She looked up at the loft again with the wooden stairs on the left wall leading up to a darkened area.

"I'm gonna go check the loft," she said to Puck, "Find what you need and get the car suited up."

The splintered stairs creaked with her every step. She readjusted her hold on her machetes, one pointing in front of her and one pointed at the ground as her arms were stationary at her sides.

As she reached the top, she found a small window illuminated the small area. There was a small round table with four folding chairs around it. An old TV set reflected the light of the window. She could make out a plastic tub filled with toys at the far end of the loft. Her stomach sank. This abandoned farm used to have a family on it. It used to have at least one child on it. She shot up a small prayer that the family was somewhere safe and zombie-free.

She scanned one last time. There were a few tools strewn about and a small refrigerator, but nothing big enough to fit a zombie in. She sheathed her machetes and peered over the railing as Sam and Puck sorted through the tools. Puck had found some cattle wire and was lugging it out to the SUV. Sam followed him with some smaller chicken wire. Santana knew that Puck would outfit the car well. The chicken wire laid across the cattle wire would provide optimum protection.

She looked down at the SUV. Quinn was standing on top squinting at the horizon. She could see Brittany looking at her from the back passenger's seat. She caught Brittany's eyes and jerked her head back toward the loft. They didn't need to do much to communicate with each other and that gesture was more than enough.

Brittany opened the door and helped Ashley out. Rachel got out with them. Quinn looked down at them and asked where they were going. Brittany explained it to her and she, Ashley and Rachel made their way up the stairs.

Quinn managed to catch Santana's eyes and gave her a look of warning. She knew what it meant. Don't let anything happen to Rachel. Santana just nodded and turned to the girls ascending the stairs.

Puck walked up with them a few minutes later with Santana's blade sharpener. He handed it to her and took her to the side, away from Brittany, Ashley and Rachel who were all playing some weird game of catch with a ball they found.

"Do you want to go check the house for supplies?" he asked her quietly.

Her eyes flickered to the sliver of house she could see out of the barn doors. Houses are where people live and people are what turn into zombies. She swallowed and thought it over before nodding. "But just you and me."

Santana called Armando up to the loft and had him sit with his shotgun on the stairs while Sam, welded the wires onto the SUV with a torch he found. Santana and Puck slowly walked toward the house, peeking in the windows as they went. It seemed empty, but that never meant anything in this zombieland.

The front door was ajar behind a closed screen door. Santana took out her machetes and glanced back at Puck. He adjusted the shotgun under his arm.

After their combined experience, they'd developed a system. Puck would open the door and scan what he could see and then Santana would slip inside. It worked for them. So far.

He pulled open the screen door and waved his gun through the door. He didn't see anything so he took a step back and Santana walked in. The house was decorated in the predictable ranch house meets little house on the prairie. In a past life, Santana would have scoffed at it. But in this life, she didn't care about material things. She wanted to survive.

A strangled moan came from down the hallway. Santana's heart sped up as she looked down the hallway. She made sure that there was nothing in the living room she was standing in and then she kicked a chair over.

The moaning became louder after the clatter she caused and she could hear a scratching noise start permeating down the hallway. It didn't get any closer as she and Puck stood to listen. Santana took a deep breath and slowly made her way down the hallway with Puck at her back. She walked heel to toe, slowly rolling on her foot, her knees bent, ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. There were open doors on either side of the hallway, which they both cleared out diligently while listening to the moans and the scratching at the end of the hallway.

Puck watched Santana's steady movements as they came up on the door where the scratching originated from. A high-pitched whine came through the door and the scratching got more frantic.

Santana frowned in front of the door. This wasn't the sounds that she usually associated with a zombie. Santana reached for the doorknob and looked back at Puck. He looked confused as well. She slowly turned the knob and threw the door open.

A yelp filled what seemed to be the master bedroom. Santana raised her machete, ready to cut up whatever was about to attack her. She saw a black and white streak jump up on the bed and duck down. It took a moment for them both to put their weapons down because they saw what it was.

A dog was laying on the bed, whimpering. They could see it's ribs as it cowered in front of them.

Puck walked over to the bed and looked the dog over. It didn't seem to have any bites or wounds. It just looked really hungry. "C'mon buddy." Puck extended his hand out for the dog to smell.

It slowly crawled to him and smelled his hand before licking it. Puck smiled and pet the dog scratching it behind the ears. From this distance he could see that the dog was just a puppy.

Santana started looking around the room for things they could use. On the wooden dresser, she spotted a pocketknife. As she walked over to it, the dog started barking. She froze because she was sure that it was barking at her until she looked at the dog and saw it facing the door.

She cocked her head to the side and finally heard it. There were sound that she did associate with the undead. She poked her head out the door and saw the remnants of a woman hobbling toward the bedroom. A large chunk was missing out of her calf and exposing the yellowing bone beneath. Her mouth was opening and closing as she moaned, making her way toward them.

Santana took a few breaths and pulled her bandana over her mouth. She didn't waste anytime in waiting for the zombie to meander toward her. She took a few purposeful steps forward and easily sliced the head clean from the body.

The body fell to a heap in the ground, the head rolling into a room off of the hallway. She didn't have to look to know that the mouth was still moving, opening and closing for a few more seconds.

She walked back into the bedroom where Puck had picked up the dog under his arm. Santana quirked an eyebrow at him.

He rolled his eyes, "At least let Britt check him out before we let him go."

Santana took a deep breath and looked at the pathetic, weak animal under Puck's arm. She knew what would happen if Brittany got her hands on it. They would have another passenger in their SUV. She wiped off her machete on the blanket across the foot of the bed and yanked down her bandana. "Fine."

"He heard that zom before you did," Puck pointed out. "I bet he can smell those fuckers too. It'll be worth it."

"Yeah, yeah," Santana huffed. "Let's raid the kitchen and get out of here."

They didn't find much that hadn't already gone bad in the kitchen. It looked like someone had already taken all the canned foods so they didn't come out with anything substantial. Puck found some shotgun shells in the closet and put the box in his pocket.

When they walked up to the SUV, Quinn looked down at them. "You know that when Rachel and Britt see that dog, you're never getting rid of it."

"Yeah, I know," Santana sighed. She climbed up on top of the SUV with Quinn. The blonde offered her the rifle and Santana used to scope to look around while Puck took the dog up to the loft with Brittany. She looked around for a minute. Not that she didn't trust Quinn, she just wanted to see for herself.

"I like it out here," Quinn offered. She looked up at the sun that was starting it's descent in the sky. "There are almost no people, which means no zombies."

Santana nodded. She knew that. That's why they've been trying to take back roads up to Canada. A harsh gust blew against her and goosebumps appears on her skin.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked Santana, placing her hand on her friends' shoulder.

Her answer was immediate and automatic. "Yeah."

Quinn seemed to know otherwise. "Do you want to stop for the night? When it gets dark, there's no telling if we'll get lost on these roads back here."

Santana licked her lips. No matter now great of a navigator Brittany was, she was still scared of what the darkest nights held. "Yeah. Great idea."

Santana hopped down and walked into the barn. She could hear water running and a light stench of sulfur. She looked to her side and could see Sam washing the grease and dirt off of his hands.

"There's running water?" Santana asked, although she could see it.

Sam looked up at her. Then he looked back at the water. "Oh yeah. I didn't even think about it. I smells like well water though. I wouldn't drink it."

Santana nodded and made a note of it. When he was done, she cleaned her machetes and turned off the water.

Santana and Quinn closed up the SUV and Sam pulled it into the barn. Puck found a lantern in the loft that he turn it on and set in the middle of the table. They piled all of their blankets and coats up on the ground and let Ashley lay on the softest part. The dog curled up with the little girl. Brittany suspected that it had something to do with how much food Ashley had snuck to the dog under the table while they all ate their MREs in the lantern light.

Santana had on a leather jacket that she found in the clothing store in town, but put her machete's back on over it. She looked down from the loft at the pitch-black first floor. She knew the SUV was there and she knew that there was nothing there and the doors were closed. That didn't mean that she felt safe.

* * *

"I can't just sit here any longer!" Mike yelled. "We have to do something! We've been planning and reading and mapping for days! When are we going to take action!"

"Calm down," Blaine started to move toward him, but Mike flinched at the hand on his arm.

"No," Mike roared, looking around the group, disgusted, "I want to do something. I'm tired of sitting here and watching the radio and looking at the maps. They're out there on their own. They don't have a shelter like we did. There's less of them." His eyes found Mrs. Pierce when she added and his voice grew disturbingly calmer, "They have Ashley. We can't wait for them to come to us. We have to go get them."

* * *

It was chilly in the barn at night so everyone pretty much huddled together. Santana stayed awake and at the top of the stairs, staring into the darkness until Quinn woke up and made her go lay down.

Quinn had moved to the window looking out of the barn as the sun started to peek over the horizon. There had been a light flurry of snow the night before just barely resting on the ground. She wasn't sure how long she had been awake, but she was ready to get everyone packed back in the SUV and on the road.

She heard someone walking behind her and spun on her heel. She was relieved when Rachel was standing next to her. She took a deep breath and looked back out the window.

"Why can't we stay here?" Rachel asked quietly, her arms wrapped around Quinn's waist. "Brittany and I can build a greenhouse and grow food. There are beds and running water. We can see all around us. We're safe here."

Quinn looked from the snow dusted trees down to Rachel. "We have family out there somewhere."

"We got lucky when we left last time," Rachel swallowed and rested her head on Quinn's shoulder.

The blonde took a deep breath, "We also got unlucky when the dam broke and our water was gone. We had to leave."

Rachel sighed. "I just...I'm tired of running. I'm tired of constantly being on the move. I want to live somewhere. I want to have a life."

"I get it," Quinn nodded and kissed the crown of Rachel's head. "And we will."

They stood like that together, watching the rising sun melt away the thin layer of snow.

Brittany was the next to rise and because she left Santana's arms, Santana immediately woke up, reaching for her machete.

"Hey," Brittany put her hand on Santana's dominant arm. She softly kissed her, "It's okay."

Santana sighed and let go of the handle of her machete. She blinked and looked around taking in everything. She saw Quinn and Rachel holding each other by the window. She saw Brittany with her messy morning ponytail. She took a deep breath. She had to check everything so she hopped up and looked down at the main space of the barn to make sure the SUV was still there.

And it was. In all of it's amateurly welded, zombie fortified glory. She walked back over to the table and sat down, taking a small drink of the water in the canteen on the table.

She hated waking up in a panic. She hadn't not wakened up in a panic in months.

"Hey," Brittany walked over to her and pulled a chair up next to her. "Are you okay?" She leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and took Santana's hand.

Santana avoided Brittany's eyes. She didn't want to give anything away and she knew that if she told Brittany she was fine, the blonde wouldn't believe her and it would make her all the more curious.

"I'll tell you later," she whispered to her girlfriend and finally met her eyes.

Brittany looked into Santana's eyes and finally accepted the answer she was given. "Okay." She leaned forward and kissed Santana, this time with more passion.

Santana's hands became buried in the blonde hair, under the drooping ponytail. When her tongue stroked Brittany's she knew that she needed this. She needed to lean on Brittany, and other people for that matter, more.

When they broke away, Santana spotted Puck looking at them. It wasn't his expected perverted voyeur smirk. It was a look of concern. When he saw her looking, he looked away and nudged Sam awake.

The dog licked Ashley until she giggled herself awake and as soon as everyone was up, Quinn got everyone in the SUV as fast as she could so they could all leave.

Ashley was the only one that ate breakfast because everyone else knew the importance of rationing their food and that Ashley was still a small child in need of regular nutrition. No one said anything as their own stomachs grumbled while the little girl ate to her stomach's content.

They drove for about fifteen minutes before their path was blocked. A tree had fallen across the road so Armando got out of the car and examined it. He walked back over to the window where his sister was and talked through the layers of wire on the window. "Someone cut it down."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

He nodded. "There are burn marks on the stump from the chainsaw."

"Well we have to move it," Santana opened her door and slid out. "Get Sam and figure out how." She grabbed the small leather pouch containing her binoculars from under her seat and got on top of the car.

Sam moved with Armando toward the tree and put his hands on his hips. "So can we push it?"

Puck on the other hand had gotten out of the car with Brittany and walked to the back of the SUV looking down the road that they came down. Brittany opened the back window and stared digging in one of the duffle bags.

"Why would someone bock the road?" Puck asked. Mostly to himself, but he glanced up at Santana to see if she was going to answer anyway.

"They don't want people bringing zombies to where they are," Brittany answered offhandedly as she pulled out a shoulder holster. She put it on and pulled the handguns out of the waist of her shorts and shoved them into the holsters.

Santana frowned. She did not like this. Well she downright hated the whole zombie mess, but she didn't like that there could be other people out there. She didn't know what they'd be like. Back at the base, she had heard stories of marauders, stealing everything from other people, leaving them to starve or be eaten with no way to defend themselves.

She scanned the horizon again before looking down at Brittany. She was looking back up at her. Brittany knew of the stories too and Santana had a sneaking suspicion that that is why Brittany was arming herself. And the fact that Brittany was doing so, scared Santana more than anything.

Sam and Armando come with an in idea to move the tree with the SUV. They couldn't find a rope or a chain in the back of the SUV that was long and strong enough so they wandered off into a field and came back with some fairly large logs. Everyone got out of the SUV to stretch their legs and let the dog pee while Armando eased the SUV up to Sam who was positioning the logs against the bumper of the SUV. Finally the logs were pressed up to the tree and Armando easily pushed the tree out of the way.

"Hey San," Quinn said quietly. She had been keeping watch behind them through her scope.

Santana turned to her friend and saw that Quinn was still looking through her scope down the road. Santana looked up and she could see it. A lone zombie, it's left arm missing as it slowly walked toward them. Her stomach jumped into her throat like it always did. She immediately took a head count of everyone around her to make sure they were all accounted for.

"Do you want me to take it out?" Quinn asked. Her voice was hesitant. She lowered her rifle and looked at Santana who was staring at the walker closing the two hundred yards between them.

Santana knew what she was worried about. Quinn didn't want to draw attention to them with a gunshot. Especially is there were actually people around.

"No, I got it," Santana slowly drew her machetes out. She started her walk toward the slow moving zombie and threw over her shoulder, "Everyone get back in the car."

Santana strode to the walker. From the sparse gray hairs matted with blood and zombie ooze, she could tell that this zombie used to be an older man.

However, as they started to grow near each other, the zombie slowed down. Soon, it's steps stopped altogether. Santana slowed her steps as well as she grew near. She knew if she needed to she could strike now because she was close enough, but the zombie wasn't moving.

Suddenly, it fell forward. She jumped backwards and drew her machete up to strike. However she didn't. A second later, she lowered her weapon. The ground around the body began to become wet. It was like water was pouring out of the body. She took a step back before she liquid could touch her boots. This was starting to freak her the fuck out.

She didn't want to take a chance so she severed it's head before running back to the group. She hopped in the car and tapped the back of the driver's seat. "Let's go."

"What happened?" Quinn leaned forward and asked from her place in the very back of the SUV. But Santana knew that she saw it.

The zombie died before she killed it. And nothing made sense anymore.

As they traveled down the road, slowly because overly cautious Armando took over driving, Ashley laid down across Brittany and Santana, her head resting in Santana's lap. The small dog in the floorboard, curling up between Brittany's feet.

Santana scanned outside her window and noticed that everyone else was as well. Everyone was in high alert because what happened before and everyone was silent. She slowly stroked the blonde hair of the little girl sleeping on her and searched her brain for what the fuck happened to that zombie. And the ones in town.

Just as she was about to relax, Puck call from the front seat. "Hey check it out."

In front of them on the road was a large pile of brush. Tree limbs mixed with parts of bushes and a lot of leaves. Armando pulled to a stop in front of it. "You can drive right over that," Sam offered from the middle seat next to Brittany.

Armando looked in the rearview mirror and found Santana's eyes. She could see that her brother wanted to stop and look at it. He didn't want to just drive over it. She nodded because if there was ever a time to be cautious, now was it.

He threw the SUV into park and opened his door. Santana picked up Ashley's head and slid out from under it so she could get out. "C'mon Rachel." She jerked her head toward the pile and walked over to it, not waiting for Rachel.

Santana walked up to her brother and soon was joined by Puck and Rachel. They all stood looking at the brush. Armando scratched the scruff on his face and walked along the perimeter of the brush pile, carefully scanning.

"What's..." Rachel trailed off and tilted her head as she moved closer to the pile. She ducked her head and bent down, brushing a few leaves away.

"Holy shit," Puck leaned over her shoulder and muttered.

Armando and Santana quickly made their way to where Rachel was and peered down to where she was still carefully brushing away leaves. Something shiny and metallic was poking through the leaves, under a pile of small branches. Puck bent over and picked up some of the branches, giving them a better look at it.

There were long slender pieces of metal sticking out of the leaves. They were evenly spaces and every one of them came to a sharp point at the end. After removing more branches and brushing away more leaves, they saw that the metal pieces were all connected by a malleable pieces of some kind of plastic. The whole thing spanned the width of the road.

"It's a spike strip," Puck said after he's thrown all of the branches off of the side of the road. "When I stole that ATM, the cops used it to bust my tires."

Santana looked around them and her heart started hammering. This meant that someone wanted to stop them. Someone wanted them immobile. Someone wanted to strand them.

"Get that thing out of the way," Santana quickly demanded, "We gotta get out of here."

The urgency in her voice was enough to get everyone moving. Puck and Armando moved the spike strip and Rachel hopped into the SUV to drive it past where it was. Then Santana told them to put it back. They covered it back up and Santana took the driver's seat. Now wasn't the time for caution. It was time for drive like hell.

When she glanced in the backseat, she saw Ashley wide-awake and looking out the window. She immediately turned her eyes back to the road. She knew that stakes were higher this time. Last time they could all take care of themselves. This time she had to think about Ashley. There were so many scenarios running through her mind that she almost didn't notice Puck speaking.

"What?" she asked, having missed everything he said.

"We have company," Puck nodded to the road in front of them.

Santana looked up, fully expecting a herd of zombies to be walking toward them. Instead, she was an old blue truck.

No one moved as the truck pulled to a step a few hundred yards from them. From her place in the car, Santana could make out an older man with a beard and a younger one, probably a few years older than her. They both got out of their truck and closed the doors. They stood in front of their truck just looking at them.

Santana stared ahead at the man with the beard. His weathered, calloused face shook her for a moment. The younger man with him was just a follower and she knew it. The older man was who she was going to have to contend with. She counted to ten and then took a deep breath. "Everyone stay here. Don't move and do not let them see Ashley."

She felt the cold steel of a gun glide against her lower back and tuck itself into the waistband of her shorts. She knew that Brittany's steady hand was the one placing it there. She knew why. Machetes were effective against zombies, but weren't good for the distance she planned on keeping between herself and the men.

The door opened with a muted click and Santana slid out of the vehicle, her feet meeting the ground almost silently. She closed the door and put on her old head Cheerio demeanor.

When the men didn't speak as she looked at them, she gestured to the truck in the middle of the road. "We just want to drive through." She was well aware of the disadvantage they were at. Behind them a few feet was a spike strip that would shred their tires. In front of them was a truck. She didn't want them to see she was shaken so she kept her jaw hard and her eyes on the men.

"Oh yeah?" the younger man asked.

Santana continued to looked at the older man, ignoring the younger one. She knew who the alpha was. She needed to communicate with him. So she held his eyes, not moving and barely breathing.

"What are the machetes for?" the old man finally asked after a four minute stare down with Santana.

"Protection," Santana stated simply. She glanced back at the SUV where her friends were. She wanted to make sure they weren't being attacked from the rear and these men were just a distraction. Of course she knew Quinn took her post in the back seriously and wouldn't let anyone sneak up on them.

"How many people do you got in there?" the older man asked, nodding to the SUV.

Santana shifted her weight from her left foot to her right, "What does it matter?"

"Friendly question," he shrugged, but something about his jaw hardened.

Santana found that man to be a whole lot less than friendly. She refused to show that she was intimidated in the least. Instead she pretended to be pissed off. She crossed her arms. "Fuck it. We'll go around." She whirled on her heel and started walking back.

However she stopped dead at the sound of a gun cocking back and a cold voice, "I wouldn't do that if I was you."

Santana knew that there was a loaded gun pointing at her back. She also knew that there was a loading gun in the back of her pants. She doubted that the men could see it because the tips of her machetes hung over the back of her pants now that she was standing.

Santana slowly turned around to see the younger man holding a revolver on her. She licked her lips. "Are you gonna shoot me?"

"I don't think that would be good for us on a count of your friend standing behind you with a rifle pointed right at me," the older man scratched his beard, "Unless she shoots and misses and that would be bad for you."

"She doesn't miss," Santana smirked. She had faith in Quinn to not miss. What she worried about was being shot while Quinn was reloading.

"It seems we're in a stand off," the older man took a step toward her.

Santana took a slow step backwards. "I'm just going to walk away so no one gets hurt."

The look in the man's eyes was unrelenting. For a moment she wavered. Killing zombies was easy. They weren't people anymore. They were monsters. These men in front of her were human. It made her hesitate in delivering her usual swift and severe retaliation.

"Tell your friend to put her gun away," the older man stated.

Santana smirked. She heard the momentary quiver in his voice. "I don't think so. I think you should tell your friend to put his gun away."

The younger man's hand started to shake as he looked to his elder for direction. Seeing him look away, Santana felt like she could get the gun out of her pants before he looked back. But she wasn't fast enough. He looked back at her and his eyes grew wide. She didn't have time to move before he squeezed the trigger. The blast from his pistol echoed across the empty fields around them. It was followed almost immediately by another, then the sound of a dog barking.

The pain radiated from her shoulder down to her fingers and back. She heard the car doors open and a flurry of feet rush toward her. "Santana," Armando was right in her ear. She couldn't open her eyes. The pain was too intense.

On her left side, she felt quick, sure hands moving her around and making her lie down. Through her blurry eyes that she fought to open, she could see Brittany taking some kind of cloth from Armando and pressing it down on her shoulder. Santana hissed when contact with made and Brittany murmured, "I'm sorry babe. I have to stop the bleeding."

"I know," Santana exhaled. She tried to not make any more noises as Brittany did what she needed to do to her shoulder. It just hurt so fucking bad.

She heard an engine start and rumble away. When she looked up she tried to sit up to see what it was. Brittany and Armando pushed her back down. "What's going on?"

"Santana you have to be still," Armando stated.

Santana huffed trying to look around, "Quinn, where's Quinn?"

"I'm right here," the blonde looked down at her. "I shot the younger one in chest. The old man put him in the back of the truck and took off." She shifted her weight and looked at where the truck had disappeared to.

"We need to get out of here," Santana stated, trying again to sit up. "They could be bringing more people. We gotta go." She pushed up off of the ground and as she shifted, it was the first time she noticed how much blood was soaking through her shirt. She felt it sticking to her left side as she was helped up.

"Where's Ashley?" Santana asked as she walked to the car, getting a little dizzy as she moved. She faltered for a moment and Brittany caught her.

"She's in the car with Puck and Rachel. They're all in the back," Quinn stated, picking up the gun that Santana had dropped when she got shot.

Sam jumped into the driver's seat and as soon as the last door was closed, he took off. They swerved around where the truck used to be a gunned it down the two lane road.

Santana leaned back against the door next to her while Brittany knelt in the seat next to her and started removing the shirt that she had wrapped so tightly around Santana's shoulder before.

"Should you take the bullet out?" Armando asked quietly. Everyone was hyper aware of the child in the backseat and no one wanted to scare her.

Brittany gently pulled Santana forward and moved the brunette's shirt out of the way. "It went all the way through."

At this point Santana was feeling extremely woozy and her eyes kept fighting her to slid closed.

"What do we do?" Puck asked, peeking over the seat.

"You keep distracting Ashley," Brittany demanded with a harsh tone few had ever heard from her. "I'll take care of her."

"I'm fine," Santana mumbled through half closed eyes as Sam sped down the highway.

Brittany ripped Santana's shirt up the side and took it off of her girlfriend without touching her wound. The bloodied material fell to the seat as Brittany's trembling fingers carefully maneuvered Santana's shoulder so that she could get a better look at it. As she moved it, Santana writhed in pain.

"I'm sorry," Brittany whispered and put the arm back where it was. She turned her Armando who was just watching Brittany take care of his sister. "I need the alcohol."

Armando was quickly on his knees and leaned over the seat, going through the first aid kit with Rachel. "And the gauze too." Brittany added.

When she was presented with both, Brittany looked at Santana. "Babe this is going to hurt." She unscrewed the cap on the alcohol. She glanced behind Santana and saw Rachel covering Ashley's ears while Puck made weird faces at her.

"Just do it," Santana gritted her teeth.

Brittany knew she had to do it, but she knew she was about to cause Santana an immense about of pain. She took a deep breath and poured the alcohol all over Santana's shoulder. The brunette's whole body tensed as she screamed in pain.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Brittany whispered to her and took Santana's head in her hands.

Santana managed to calm herself enough to use to her good arm to put her hand on the back of Brittany's head. "It's okay." She kissed the side of Brittany's head. "Just finish it."

Brittany pulled away and nodded, tenderly wiping the sweat from Santana's forehead. Brittany used the gauze to cover up Santana's wound and then Rachel dug out a shirt for Santana to wear while Brittany made her old shirt into a sling for her arm.

"I don't want to stop again until we get into Canada," Santana stated after she was bandaged up and wrapped safely in Brittany's arms.

Sam found her eyes in the rearview mirror and nodded, "Gotcha."

The only sound in the vehicle for the next few hours was Rachel reading to Ashley and the occasional giggle when the puppy would lick Ashley. Everyone else was dead silent. Brittany made Santana lay back on her and relax for a little bit as they drove through small towns, topping off their tank one time before making it almost the whole way Canadian border.

Just a few miles from the border, Sam pulled to a stop in the middle of a completely empty gravel parking lot right on the bank of one of the Great Lakes. No one was really sure which one though.

He turned around in his seat to look at Santana who was passed out on Brittany's shoulder. The blonde pressed her finger to her lips and continued stroking Santana's hair. She whispered, "Why don't we all eat something and then find somewhere to rest for the night?"

Puck looked at Quinn who nodded. Then he quietly got out some of their dwindling MRE stash and passed them out. Rachel and Quinn shared one and Brittany nibbled on hers a bit before giving the rest to Ashley. Even the starving boys in the car understood that they needed to ration so they all three split two between each other.

"Where do we go now?" Rachel asked from the backseat. She was quiet about it and careful with her words.

"All we know is that there are people in Canada," Sam shrugged, reaching to the knobs on the console and flipping the heater on.

"We know that our people are in Canada," Quinn stated. She reached forward and snatched the map out from between the front seats. "We just have to figure out where."

Everyone stopped talking as Santana started to stir. She slowly lifted her head off of Brittany's shoulder and blinked. When she realized that they were stationary, she quickly woke up and looked around, "Why are we stopped?"

"We're right outside of Canada," Puck offered, handing her the candy bar out of his MRE, "But we don't know which way to go."

Quinn pointed to the pen in the cup holder between the front seats, "Can you hand me that?"

Sam did and Quinn started circling things on the map. "Big cities are out right? There's too many people which means a lot of zombies."

Santana nodded and watched as Quinn circled all the major cities in Canada. She added, "It's probably in helicopter distance. The helicopters that took everyone away had to come from somewhere so they had to fly to us and back on one tank."

"How far can the helicopters go?" Quinn asked.

Sam ran a hand through his hair, "One of the pilots said five hundred miles when we were talking about flying to California."

"California?" Rachel asked.

Sam shrugged, "We were just joking around. We were going to fly to San Francisco and hole up in Alcatraz."

Quinn looked at the map for a moment before Santana interrupted. "Give the map to Brittany."

Under normal circumstances, Quinn would have protested, but these were extreme circumstances and she knew that her expertise was not in cartography or navigation. She handed off the map and the pen. Santana scooted over toward Quinn so that Brittany had more room to work.

"Where are we?" Brittany asked. She hadn't been paying attention to the road. All her worry was placed with Santana during the drive.

Sam looked at Armando who looked back at Quinn. It seemed no one really knew where they were.

"Really?" Santana huffed. "No one knows where we are?" She looked around for her machetes and found that they had been placed on the floorboard. She picked one up and gestured for Quinn to get out of the car so that she could get out.

"Are you sure you can -" Quinn started, but a single look from Santana shut her up. She knew that look. Santana was angry and she was angry because she was scared. In this, Quinn knew not to say anything. She just grabbed her rifle and opened the door.

She was taken aback by a chilling wind that almost blew her back into the car. When her feet met the gritty ground she turned around. She knew better than to help Santana get out. The brunette didn't really need much help anyway. She easily slid her machete over her shoulder with her good arm and adjusted it for easy accessibility.

Santana looked around the car and picked out another scout, "C'mon Puck." Rachel silently passed three of the coats they had looted over the seat. Santana didn't ask for them, but she nodded in a thanks to Rachel and grabbed the collars of all three of them with her good hand.

He grabbed a shotgun and got out of the car as well. Santana shut the door she had just come out of and looked around. On one side was a vast lake and on the other side was the beginnings of a small town. Santana passed out the coats, giving the largest one to Puck. Quinn slid on a tan canvas jacket and Santana draped a black puffy jacket across her shoulders.

The three walked shoulder-to-shoulder back toward the main road, searching all the signs for a clue as to where they were.

"I hate to be the asshole to bring it up," Puck ventured, running a hand over his mowhawk, "But do you think it's a good idea for you to be fighting? With your arm and shit?"

"It's fine," Santana growled. However she knew it wasn't fine. Every step and twist of her body sent pain shooting through her shoulder. She could feel the blood seep out the more she moved. She knew that she was probably more of a handicap in a real battle at this point than an asset. She didn't want to scare anyone though.

They got to the first street and peered down the road. It was easy to figure out the name of the town when almost everything was named after it. When they walked the hundred yards to the SUV, they found Brittany and Armando standing at the hood of the car holding a rope that had the dog on the end of it doing his business. They had the map spread across the hood of the car as Brittany wrote.

Santana walked up behind her and rested her chin on Brittany's shoulder. The blonde leaned back gently into Santana and pointed to the map. She had drawn a crescent line across part of Canada close to Michigan. "That's how far they could have gotten with one tank of gas."

Santana nodded. "We're in Colleyville right now."

Brittany pointed to it on the map. A small dot on the coast of Lake Erie. It seemed as though they were heading in the right direction if they were going to get to the part of Canada that the helicopters flew to.

"That's a lot of space to cover," Armando exhaled, his breath crystallizing in the air before fading away.

"Well Toronto is out," Quinn pointed to a circle that she had made earlier about the huge city.

"London looks pretty big too," Puck pointed out and Brittany made a circle around it.

Armando leaned forward, "What about Detroit? If we want to avoid big cities, how are we going to avoid Detroit? It's the closest way over into Canada."

"He's right," Quinn nodded and placed her finger on the map, "Ann Arbor is directly north of us. If we go around, we have to go the long way around."

"We could go around and cross here," Brittany used to pen to point to Port Huron.

Santana shifted her weight and looked at the map. Then she looked at the sky where the sun was beginning it's descent. "Let's vote." She looked at the group. "Who wants to go through Detroit?"

When no one raised their hands, she nodded, "Port Huron it is." She looked at Brittany whose cheeks were turning pink in the harsh wind that blew off of the water. "Let's get in the car. Brittany you should probably get in the passenger's seat. We'll need you to navigate."

Brittany nodded and kissed Santana suddenly. Santana wasn't quite expecting it, but enjoyed it nonetheless. She had a feeling that after getting shot, there would be a lot of those coming her way soon.

Once in the car, Sam took off driving in all the directions Brittany told him to. They managed to swing around Ann Arbor and get up to Port Huron in no time. They would see the occasional zombie, but not enough to make them want to pull over and eliminate it. For the most part they'd just keep driving past them.

The sun was starting to set when they got to Port Huron and the sky had morphed into a menacing color of grey. Sam had to carefully navigate the Blue Water Bridge as many cars were parked in the middle off it. When they made it to the other side, Brittany directed them out of Sarnia, a fairly large town to a small road that seemed to lead to the middle of nowhere.

They found a small farm outside of town. Santana didn't seem to sure about clearing the house to stay in for the night so Rachel suggested that they drive into a small fenced in area that looked like it used to be a large dog kennel and close the gate behind them.

Everyone agreed and Sam pulled to a stop inside the kennel. It was a tight squeeze and Brittany could barely open her door enough to get out and close the gate before jumping back into the SUV. Then he turned around in his seat to look at everyone. "I don't think we have enough gas to run it all night."

"We'll be fine," Rachel offered. "We have blankets and coats and each other. We'll be okay."

No one really liked that they had stopped in the middle of nowhere, but they didn't seem to have much choice. They were relatively safe with all the wires across the windows as well as weapons and the ability to use them. The chain link fence around them was probably going to help a lot of them sleep better that night.

Quinn climbed into the back with Rachel and Puck climbed over the middle seat, taking a place on the floorboard with the puppy. It was a tight fit, but Brittany laid across the middle seat with Ashley laying on her chest and Santana laying at her side. There were the occasional hisses of pain from Santana as they were getting situated, but with her head on Brittany's shoulder, she was as comfortable as she had been in a while.

Sam reclined his seat slightly and Armando rested his head on the console between him and Sam. Blankets and coats were passed out and everyone absorbed

Rachel as usual was the first one awake. She tried not to move because moving meant that she would wake up Quinn and the blonde was having a hard time since the shootout. No one really paid attention to Quinn because Santana was the one with the bullet wound, but Quinn was the one that shot back. Rachel didn't see what really happened to the man that Quinn shot because the shot had pushed the man back into the bed of the truck and then all of Rachel's focus was on keeping Ashley calm while everyone jumped out of the SUV to get to Santana. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what happened to the man, but she knew it bothered Quinn that she might have actually killed someone - a human someone.

Rachel managed to move her head so that she could see the windows. To her surprise it was still dark inside of the SUV. She checked her watch saw that it was almost eight. Well past the time that the sun should have been up. With a momentary surge of panic that something was really wrong she shot up, trying to make sure everyone was still inside of the SUV and okay.

Of course the movement woke up Quinn who was automatically reaching for her rifle, mumbling, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Rachel looked around and reached next to her where she had organized some of the supplies in a duffle bag in the order of most use. She pulled out a flashlight by feel and clicked it on.

"What's going on?" Santana sat up on her knees next to Brittany and Ashley and rolled her neck.

Rachel pointed the flashlight at the window, but instead of seeing the small beam shoot through the window onto the chain link fence and onto the grass around them, it stopped at the window. Quinn could see Rachel's breaths become more rapid with the white puffs of crystallized air emitting from her lips.

She looked back at Quinn and then Santana, past Santana to Sam who was awake and back, "We're snowed in." She looked back at Quinn who she knew was claustrophobic. Rachel herself wasn't normally so afraid of small spaces, but this seemed like the time to start with the fear.

She saw Quinn's hands clench and the white puffs of smoke coming out of the blonde's lips turn into a steady stream of white. Rachel scooted closer to Quinn, "Hey, it's okay. We'll be okay. I'm sure we have plenty of things to get us out."

Quinn pulled Rachel to her and squeezed her eyes closed. The blonde was trying to steady her breaths because she was getting light headed. She tried to relax as Rachel ran her hands through her hair and across her back.

Santana had awakened Brittany and by proxy Puck, Ashley, and Armando. She helped Ashley up and suggested, "Hey Ash why don't you go sit with Sam for a few minutes?"

Ashley knew not to argue and climbed over the seat, sitting down in Sam's lap. She closed her eyes again and rested her head on his chest, falling back asleep.

Santana reached for the flashlight in Rachel's hand, forgetting about her shoulder for a split second before pain shot through her shoulder. Brittany noticed this and took the flashlight, handing it to Santana. "Don't worry Q. We'll get out of here," Brittany assured her and moved closer to Santana as they both looked at the caked over window.

"Sam, try to start the car," Santana instructed.

He tried a few times in vein to start the car and stopped after a few tries for fear of flooding the engine. He leaned back in his seat and supported Ashley's head. "It's probably too cold."

"Shit," Santana pressed the button to roll down the window repeatedly, know that it wouldn't do anything. Then she unlocked her door manually and pulled the handle, trying to push it open. There was a little give, but not enough to even get a single finger out the door.

"Well that's a start," Brittany offered with a shrug. She scooted over closer to Santana, careful of her hurt shoulder and started scraping snow away with a pen.

Santana looked around and picked up her machete in the sheath. "Scoot back Britt."

The blonde complied and Santana unsheathed her machete. She paused a moment before shoving it through the small hole and moving it up and down. Brittany started doing it on the other side. The only sounds for the next few minutes were the sounds of the machetes occasionally scraping against the doors or the body of the SUV.

"While we're waiting," Armando pulled the map out, "Maybe we should plan on where to go from here."

"None of us know anything about Canada," Puck turned completely around in his seat and leaned back on the dashboard, "For once, Hudson would have come in handy."

Rachel sat up a little. Not enough to have to let go of a still panicky Quinn, but enough to see over the seat. "We should research."

"On what?" Puck asked, "We don't have a computer. Barely anywhere we go has power."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "There were ways of doing research before the internet Noah."

Armando opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he saw Brittany scoot away from her door and give it one strong kick. It opened a few inches wider than it was before. She abandoned the machete in the floorboard next to Puck and stuck her hand out the door, scooping snow away.

Sam looked behind him as best he could with the sleeping child on his chest, "Hey Puck can you hand me that coat?" He pointed to Santana's abandoned black puffy jacket.

Puck grabbed it and handed it to Sam who put it around Ashley. "How far north do you think we need to go?"

Santana was getting frustrated with her limited motion and put her machete back into the sheath. She rested her forehead on the door. She took a deep breath because even though she wasn't actually using her injured shoulder, all the twisting had shot pain through her shoulder like she'd never felt before. It was starting to hit her really hard how little she could actually do - how helpless she had actually become.

Brittany continued scooping snow away with her hands until she was able to open the door completely. She looked back over at Santana who was still looking out the window at the wall of snow. She wanted to crawl over the seat and comfort her, but she knew that she had to get them safe first so she kept digging.

Once she got the snow out from around Armando's door, he and Puck got out to dig out the hood of the car so they could hopefully fix it. Quinn was out of the car as soon as Brittany was back in because she couldn't stand being confined anymore and Rachel got out to help her dig.

Brittany slid across the bench seat to sit next to Santana. She wrapped her arms around the girl and kissed her temple. "It'll be ok."

Santana shook her head. "I can't do anything."

"You can still do stuff," Brittany assured her. "You're still the leader and we still need you. Maybe you can't move your arm much, but I'll be your arms."

Santana took a deep breath. She didn't want to cry even though she felt like it. She needed to be strong so she shook her head, "I'm fine."

Brittany nodded even though she knew Santana was lying.

They finished digging the SUV out and Armando and Puck got the SUV started. Puck opened the gate and after, Ashley was moved back to the back of the SUV with Quinn and Rachel, Sam pulled out. "Where to?"

"Look for a library," Rachel stated from the backseat as Puck got in.

The snow crunched under the tires of the SUV. At first Sam was nervous driving over the snow, but eventually became comfortable enough to reach thirty miles per hour.

Ironically, Puck of all people pointed out the library as they drove down the main street of the town. Sam pulled up to the front door and parked on the sidewalk, close to the door like they had done everywhere else. Santana slid out of the SUV without even thinking about it. Puck and Brittany followed her while everyone else stayed in the car.

"We'll come get everyone else when it's clear," Santana told everyone in the car, but her eyes were on Rachel's. The shorter girl nodded and Santana closed the door.

The single strap of her only machete sheath felt strange across her shoulder blades. She was used to the symmetry of two. She took a deep breath and drew her machete as Puck checked the glass door. It was unlocked so he opened it, but instead of letting Santana go in first like he usually did, he stepped in. Santana frowned and glared at the back of his head.

She checked behind her and saw Brittany pull out her Walther P99. She held it like a pro, pointed at the ground, ready to aim and fire. Santana readjusted her grip like she always did when they entered a building. It was a nervous habit.

Inside, the library was lit by the sunlight reflected off of the built up snow on the sidewalks, coming in through the windows. Santana took a mental note of the number of windows and how thick they looked. The building was old and the walls were a dusty tan color. The metal shelves were much the same color and reached almost to the ceiling.

Puck walked ahead through the rows of book. Santana broke off to check the small room off to the side. Inside were small bookshelves filled with children's books. The walls were painted a sky blue and badly drawn birds flew along the walls. The floor was made of huge primary colored puzzle pieces. Santana looked over her shoulder at Brittany. They seemed to have the same thought at the same time and nodded at each other. Ashley deserved a place to play and be a kid. If only in the time it took them to figure out where to go.

"All clear," Puck walked back toward them with his shotgun over his shoulder.

They walked outside to get everyone else and the second they stepped outside, the puppy started barking then a gun went off. That was enough to send the three teens running. When they rounded the SUV they could see Quinn holding her rifle, steam coming out of the barrel.

Over her shoulder, Santana looked out and saw two bodies laying in the snow at least a hundred meters away. One was still moving while the other lay stationary.

Quinn kept shaking her head and mouthing something silently to herself. Her wide eyes made Santana feel unhinged.

Finally she took off for the moving body. If it was a zombie she needed to put it down before they attracted anymore attention to the neighborhood zombies.

She heard footsteps being her, falling into step with her own. As she trotted closer, she saw what had freaked Quinn out so badly. There was one zombie laying in the snow, red bloodstains down the front of what was once a Christmas sweater, painting the once green Christmas tree crimson. The other body - the moving body - was a human.

A bag of supplies he had been apparently carrying was on the ground above his head. The snow surrounding his calf was stained with his blood. When Brittany stood up behind her and saw what was going on, she let out a gasp, drawing the newly bitten man's attention.

"Please," the man pleaded loudly. "Please. Help me." The ooze flowing from his infected leg was turning quickly into a sickly orange color. "Kill me. Please." He writhed in pain in front of her and Santana couldn't move. She couldn't bring herself to kill him. He was still...human. For the most part anyway. She'd never seen anyone turn before. Suddenly her felt sick thinking of how many zombies she beheaded. She came to the sudden realization that they used to be humans once.

Then a bang sounded next to her. It made her jump to the side. Then she saw that the man had stopped moving, a carefully placed bullet between his eyes. Santana slowly turned her head to see Brittany standing a few feet behind her, pistol steaming in her hand.

Tears filled Santana's eyes, but she looked away and blinked them away. She shook her head and steeled herself.

She felt Brittany's arms carefully wrap around her and whisper in her ear, "It's okay. He knew what was going to happen. He didn't want to be a monster."

That didn't stop Santana's tears. She had shouldered so much since the outbreak started. As the virus spread, the stress built up inside of her and now she was injured and had just seen what happens when you don't make the right decisions and when you don't run fast enough - when you can't protect yourself. That man couldn't be but a few years older than them.

Santana felt Brittany gently turning her around away from the body. They started walking back to the SUV, not in a huge rush. Santana was trying to compose herself and Brittany wasn't in any hurry to take her arms off of Santana.

Rachel had already ushered Ashley into the library and when Brittany and Santana got inside. A glance inside the children's room, told Brittany that sister was safe inside with Armando while he read to the little girl. The puppy was bounding around the room, chewing on several of the toys around the room. He's gnaw on one for a bit and then take it over to Ashley who had a growing stack of semi-chewed toys next to her.

"Where's Quinn?" Santana asked, having fully compartmentalized all over again. She had her cold, leader face back on and surveyed the library.

"She went to the bathroom," Rachel walked behind the front desk and lightly ran her fingers over the faces of the index drawers as she looked for the one she wanted. "There's running water so she's going to wash up a bit."

Santana looked back to see where Brittany was. The blonde was leaning back on one of the shelves. Her eyes bounced from Sam who was guarding the front door, to Puck who was roaming the shelves. It was small in terms of a library, but it made it easy to guard.

Brittany caught Santana's eyes and nodded. Santana nodded back and started to make her way to where she saw the bathrooms were earlier. However as she passed Brittany, the blonde grabbed one of the flaps of her puffy black coat and pulled her into an unexpected kiss. Santana eased into it. It felt like a breath of fresh air, kissing Brittany. They didn't get to do it often or usually for this long, but suddenly Santana felt like she was filled with a new life.

When she took a step back Brittany smiled at her. Santana started to walk off again, but Brittany didn't let go. She pulled Santana back one more time, but this time she kissed her cheek and whispered, "I love you," in her ear.

"I love you too," Santana grinned and just looked at Brittany, absorbing her for a moment before moving to the bathroom.

Illuminated by a few slender windows above the bathroom stalls, Quinn was at the sink in a sports bra, wiping her arms down with wet paper towels. Santana figured that she should do the same with Brittany's help later. So she leaned on the wall next to the door and offered, "I figured you'd be creaming you pants for the chance at your own library."

Quinn cracked a tiny smile, "Don't kid yourself. As soon as I stop smelling like Puck, I'm going to look for The Picture of Dorian Gray in paperback."

Santana smiled at Quinn through the mirror and paused for a moment before she asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Quinn's answer was way too quick for Santana to think it was genuine.

"You know, it's probably a damn miracle we didn't see that happen before now," Santana tried to her best to breach the subject carefully and in way that made it seem like it was a normal conversation.

Quinn fell silent and focused harder on washing her shoulder. She didn't seem to want to talk about it and Santana didn't want to speak more directly. Santana sighed at her failed attempt to reach out to Quinn.

"Listen," Santana offered up, "If you need to talk and you don't want to stress Rachel out or whatever, I'm... here." With that she gave up and turned to walk out of the room.

"I killed a man," Quinn's voice quickly spat out.

Santana whirled around and looked at Quinn with a quirked eyebrow. "What?"

"The guy that shot you," Quinn's eyes graced the tiles on the ground and the paper towel in her hand was little more than a dense ball in her clenched fist. "I killed him. I know I did." Her eyes tentatively raised from the ground up to Santana's face. "And I'm... I'd do it again because he tried to kill you and he would have tried to kill the rest of us or just robbed us and left us to die, but that doesn't change the fact that I killed a living, breathing man. And I can't - I can't shake it." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I can see his face right after I shot. He looked right at me and I could see his face. Its was like," she paused to clear her throat, "It was like 'how could you?'"

Santana walked over to Quinn and pulled the blonde to her with her good arm. "You did what you had to do. Thank you so much for doing it. He may have finished me off if you didn't." She didn't know what else to say. She wasn't used to comforting people after killing other people. She could handle when people freaked out about killing zombies. Tina cried for a straight half hour after her first kill and Santana sat with her, telling her that zombies after just monsters. They're animals and the world was now an eat or be eaten place. She could say those things to Quinn. That man was just an animal. He was going to leave them all to die, but she knew it wouldn't help Quinn distance herself from the kill like they could with the nameless, faceless zombies.

It didn't help that mere minutes ago, Brittany killed a man and Santana was the one to break down crying. Santana herself, the leader of their group, didn't have to guts to kill a man who was begging for it. It made her sick just thinking about it.

"Hey is everything -" Rachel's voice entered the room before her body could. She stopped in the doorway when she saw Quinn sobbing on Santana's shoulder. "Quinn, what's wrong?"

Just as Santana was about to ask Rachel to give them a minute, Quinn detached from her and wiped her eyes, "Nothing."

Rachel looked immediately wounded by what Quinn said. Quinn noticed this and sighed. "I'm just...I killed that guy that shot Santana and... it hurts."

Rachel immediately moved to Quinn, placing a supportive hand on Quinn's upper arm. "I understand that that can be a traumatic event and that you may not want to talk about it with me, but I certainly hold no judgment for you Quinn. I believe what you did was brave and I don't think many of the rest of us could have done the same."

Quinn's expression turned blank. She thought over what Rachel said before nodding. "Thanks Rach."

Rachel flexed a smile. "I'll give you two a minute." She kissed Quinn's cheek and exited the bathroom.

"For what it's worth, I agree with her," Santana leaned back against the sink next to Quinn.

Quinn let out a small, faint smile and turned the water back on. "Thanks."

"Fe Fi Fum Fory, I'm going to tell my own story," Armando read to Ashley in the children's reading room. He was sitting on a tiny chair at a tiny table next to Ashley. When he looked up from the book, he could see that she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the table, staring at it. "Hey, what's wrong?" he put the book down on the table.

Ashley looked up at him with her baby blue eyes. "I miss Mommy."

Armando nodded. He could understand that. He was a grown man and he missed his mom too. "We'll find her."

"When?" Ashley asked.

Armando paused for a moment to think of the right answer. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice to a gentle tone, "You trust Santana right?"

Ashley nodded, strands of blonde hair falling out of her ponytail.

"Santana will find your mommy and my mommy," Armando told her. "And I promise that my mommy is taking care of your mommy. Wherever they are, we'll find them."

"You promise?"

Armando nodded, "I promise."

At the door of the room, Santana silently sighed and walked off. Neither one of them had seen her, but she had heard the whole conversation. It scared her how much everyone believe in her. She didn't want to let them down. She already choked once today and she was one limb short of an able body. It made her chest tight thinking about how massively she could let everyone down.

Her eyes automatically started scanning the room, making sure everyone was accounted for. Armando and Ashley were in the reading room with the puppy. Sam was standing guard at the front door. Brittany, Rachel and Quinn were standing around a table. Brittany had the map spread out across the table while Rachel held a book in her head, her eyes flickering from the book to the map. Quinn seemed to just be standing next to Rachel, watching. Puck was walking out of the bathroom zipping up his fly. When he saw her looking he walked over to her.

"How's it going?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Ask them."

"I'm asking you," he stated, putting his arm around her shoulders.

She shrugged him off and walked over to the front desk where someone had put their small transmitter. "I'm fine." She flipped on the switch and sat down in the librarian chair. On the librarian side of the front counter, a picture was taped to the edge of the counter. It was a little boy with a man. There was a definite resemblance between the two. Santana pulled it off of the counter and looked it over. They looked happy. They were probably dead now. Or undead. Both of them.

She huffed and put the picture face down on the counter. "This is all just so fucked."

"You can't talk like that," Puck pressed his hands into the counter and leaned forward. "If the others catch wind -"

"Fuck off Puckerman," Santana snapped. She pushed herself up out of the chair and came within inches of Puck's face. Her voice was low and dangerous. "You know I fucking know that it's my job to protect everyone. That I'm the fucking fearless leader. I know that I owe everyone here and I will protect them with my life. I just need a second to freak the fuck out okay?" Her stare was enough to encapsulate Puck in a reverent silence.

She fell back into the chair and spun around so that she was facing away from Puck and the rest of the group. Puck knew not to linger so he turned and walked away from their fearless leader.

Quinn let her fingertips graze over the spines of the books. She missed books. There weren't many books on the military base that she wanted to read. The sun reflecting off of the snow outside and shining into the library onto the muted covers of the literary works. She found the section she was looking for and found the author she was looking for.

As she pulled out the first in a long line of Oscar Wilde works, Rachel rounded the aisle and slowly walked up to Quinn. The blonde dropped her hand from the book and turned to her friend. Rachel smiled tentatively. "I came to get a few books. I figured that since we're running out of food, I can replace the now vacant space with books."

"Great," Quinn looked away from Rachel at the books, knowing that Rachel didn't ask what she really wanted to. She figured it was a good thing because she wasn't ready to talk about it again She'd already sealed up the memory and was ready to ignore it for a few years.

"I think we should stay here for the night," Sam turned his head to look at Santana who was still in the swivel chair, sulking. He was now sitting at the front door, tired of staring at the snow and the SUV outside.

"How are we gonna watch the car?" Santana asked, half-heartedly.

"We can get everything out," Sam shrugged. "It'll give us a chance to see what we have and reload it so the people in the back have more room."

Santana thought it over and looked over at him, "How are we going to secure the building?"

"Look, if you don't want to do it then we don't have to," Sam huffed and pushed himself to his feet.

She let her head lull back onto the top of the back of the chair. "Sam, I didn't mean to sound like a bitch. I'm just tired." She gestured to her arm that was in the sling. "And in pain. We can stay here if you want."

Sam ruffled his hair and shook it out of his eyes, "Sorry. I'm just...I feel like we're getting close. I'm getting anxious."

Up to this point Santana never really thought about how close they actually could be. According to how far the helicopter could fly and where they were, they were getting close. Within a couple hundred miles. The journey seemed so far and so long, but now they were close to the end.

"It's cool," Santana stood up. She needed to figure out what the other girls had found out about their next direction.

When she got to the table with the map on it that had been abandoned, she saw a few circles on the map and a book open next to the map. The paper was yellowing on the old book and a black and white picture depicted a military base with airplanes in a row in front of an airplane hanger.

"There are only two military bases with places helicopters in our perimeter. So they either stopped at one of the two or refueled at them," Brittany stepped up behind Santana and looked at the table.

Santana nodded. "So we'll go to the first one, first thing tomorrow."

Brittany ran her hand through Santana's choppy hair and kissed her cheek. "It's time to change your bandage."

"I don't wanna," Santana whined and turned into Brittany. With the blonde's arms around her, she no longer felt like she had to protect everyone. She felt like she could be the one that was protected.

Of course she went with Brittany into the bathroom. She took off her shirt with a little help and stood in front of Brittany in her bra and pants, waiting for the blonde to take care of her. It always scared Santana to be vulnerable, except in front of Brittany. With the blonde she laid her complete trust. "I love you."

Brittany gently kissed Santana, "I love you too." Then she got to work. Unwrapping the wound was painful for Santana, but the alcohol Brittany poured on it again made tears fill her eyes. Sympathy tears dripped down Brittany's cheeks as she finished wrapping up the wound again. The second the bandage was secured on her shoulder, Brittany wrapped her arms around Santana. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Santana whispered, resting her head on Brittany's shoulder.

Brittany pulled away and kissed Santana, this time harder - hungrier. She didn't hesitate a second before reaching down and firmly pulling up on the back of Santana's thighs and pushing back, sitting on the counter.

"Britt," Santana said in an attempt to get herself to regain mental functions, but it came out as more of a moan as Brittany's lips met her neck.

In the front of the library, Sam made sure that the SUV was parked right in front of the doors to the library and that it was locked before stepping inside and using a rope from their supplies to tie the front doors shut. Rachel had found some tacs in the librarian's desk and hung their map up on the wall so they could use the table for supplies.

Quinn tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she looked over the supplies. It was disheartening how little they had left. If they kept eating like they had been, they had enough MREs for three more days, but that was it. She missed being stationary in a place where Brittany and Rachel could grow food, so she didn't have to worry about starving to the point of not being able to lift her rifle and being left defenseless for the first zombie that came creeping by.

She felt confident in their weapon and ammo cache. She was really the only one that had fired a shot and her shots were always precise so she never wasted any bullets.

Rachel walked up next to her and Quinn put her arm around Rachel's shoulders. "We need food huh?" Rachel let her arms rest around Quinn's waist.

The blonde nodded. "But hopefully we'll be somewhere safe by then."

Puck walked up to them with Ashley in his arms. She was looking at the food as they got closer. "You hungry?"

Ashley nodded as Puck set her down at the table they had used to plan their trip the next day. He looked through the MREs and picked up one that he knew Ashley liked. After opening it and using the self-warmers, he set it in front of her.

"Do you girls want something?" Puck asked Rachel and Quinn, looking over the stack of food.

"No," Quinn shook her head. "You should eat though Rachel."

"For what?" Rachel pulled back and caught Quinn's eyes. "I don't do much. If anyone should eat, it should be you."

"Everyone should eat," Santana said, breaking into the conversation with Brittany on her arm.

"But we don't-" Puck started, but Santana interrupted him.

"We'll find them soon," Santana stated. "And even if we don't, we know the location of two military bases within helicopter distance of where we were. We'll find someone and then we'll find out families." The conviction in her eyes was enough for everyone else to believe that she believed what she was saying.

Even though they had confidence in Santana, everyone ate less than they usually did. But they ate and that's what counted.

"Let's go over what's going to happen tomorrow," Santana leaned forward on the table, her one good hand stabilizing her.

Brittany looked at the map. "We're going to load up our stuff and drive to the nearest military base, which Rachel found out is in London." `

"That's a big town," Sam looked at the map and the notes Rachel had made next to the city. She had listed the population and that the base was now defunct.

"What about the next one?" Santana asked with her arms crossed as well she could. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to think like the military did.

"Clinton," Brittany pointed at a much smaller town on the map on the coast. The population that Rachel wrote next to it was one hundredth that of London.

"What does that say next to it?" Santana asked, squinting and leaning forward to see the writing.

"It's defunct as well, but it was a radar training facility," Rachel explained.

"Why aren't we going there?" Puck asked. "Even though it's closed, I bet there's still a bunch of old radio equipment in storage. If they're not there, then we can at least use some of the stuff to send out some radio messages or whatever."

"Dude's got a point," Armando put his hands in his pockets and looked to his sister for the final word.

"Let's vote," Santana offered, not knowing what else to do. "London." No one raised their hand. So she asked, "Clinton?" Everyone, including Ashley, raised their hands. Ashley did it because she saw Brittany do it and grinned when her sister nodded her approval.

"Okay," Quinn licked her lips, "I'll sit up first watch."

Everyone rolled out the blankets and coats before deciding who would sleep where. Santana laid down behind Brittany and moved her bad arm to put around the blonde. Brittany realized which arm it was before Santana did, but Santana kept going with it, ignoring her pain. She had discarded her sling in the dark, determined to get over her injury with or without the approval of her body.

"Santana you're going to hurt yourself," Brittany sighed, although having Santana's arm around her made her feel exponentially better. She put her arm around her little sister and felt Santana's hand softly caress her forearm.

Quinn walked around the library occasionally turning the flashlight out the door of the library to make sure the SUV was still there. Other than that she patrolled by moonlight, looking over her sleeping friends. She ran her hand over her disassembled and cleaned rifle on the counter in front of the librarian post. It had never let her down and she was going to take care of it, so after everyone went to sleep, she took it apart and cleaned it, taking a break at least ever ten minutes to walk around the library.

She had just finished putting it back together then someone rose from the sleeping bunch. Puck ruffled his mowhawk and yawned. He looked around and spotted Quinn at the front desk.

"Hey," he said quietly when he got close enough. He leaned on the desk across from Quinn, "What's up?"

Quinn looked over her gun. "I just got finished cleaning it."

"You're such a badass," he smiled at her.

"Shut up," Quinn rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious," he rubbed his chest as he yawned again. "You can shoot a fly off of a zombies face from a hundred yards away. Then you can blow the fucker's head off."

Quinn chuckled. Puck was right. She was the best shot of the group. "Thanks."

"No problem, Baby Mama," he looked over at the cache and picked up his shotgun. "I should probably clean this. You can get to sleep and I'll keep watch."

"I don't know," Quinn's eyes wandered to the door.

"Rachel's getting cold," Puck mentioned, jerking his head toward the sleeping mass of young adults.

That got Quinn moving to the group. She didn't want Rachel to be cold. Even if she didn't sleep, she wanted to make sure Rachel slept well. So she laid down in the empty space next to Rachel and moved her body against Rachel's. Her arm slid around the small of Rachel's back and kissed her forehead.

Puck cleaned his gun, finding dirt and oil about to clog the mechanism. As he cleaned, Armando woke up and joined him in cleaning his gun. Then Sam woke up as the sun was rising, taking a place at the desk to clean his shotgun. Santana was up next and sharpened her machetes as the guys sat around cleaning the rest of the weapons. Brittany woke up then Quinn and Rachel. Brittany was the last one left, cleaning her weapon as Santana, Quinn and the boys loaded up the SUV for their two hour drive to Clinton.

"There's a lot more room back here than there was before," Rachel said, as she and Quinn took their usual places in the back of the SUV. Due to a cleaning out and organizing of the supplies, more than half of the back of the SUV was open for Rachel and Quinn to sprawl out.

"Quinn," Santana called from outside the SUV.

The blonde crawled over the seat, careful not to hurt Ashley or Brittany who were already in the middle seat. She slid out and walked to the front of the SUV where Santana was standing, the new snow crunching under her feet.

Santana turned to Quinn her binoculars in her hand. Quinn took them when Santana offered them to her and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "Notice anything different?"

Quinn used the binoculars to look over Santana's shoulder. At first all she saw was a snow covered road. Then she remembered what had happened there the day before. "No way," Quinn lowered the binoculars.

"Yes way," Santana took the binoculars back and looked to the spot where Brittany had put a bullet between the eyes of the bitten man. The man's body was no longer there and neither was his infector. Both bodies were done and in their place, fresh snow rested on the ground.

"Do you think they both reanimated?" Quinn asked. "I mean, I don't see how, but..."

Santana shook her head and looked around. "I don't know and I don't know if I wanna know. Let's just get the fuck out of here."

Quinn climbed back into the SUV and made sure that she had easy access to her rifle. She could hear Santana directing everyone into the SUV as quickly as possible before jumping into the passenger's seat next to Puck who pressed the gas down the second Santana's door closed.

For a while, Puck drove at a practical pace, quick enough to get out of town, but slow enough to keep control of the vehicle on the new snow. Brittany placed the folded map between Santana and Puck. Santana picked it up and looked it over. She trusted Brittany navigational skills so she only briefly glanced at it before putting it down.

"Can we name the puppy?" Ashley asked, petting the head of the sleeping dog in her lap.

"Sure," Brittany nodded to her sister. She scratched behind the dog's ear. "What do you want to name him?"

"Carl," Ashley stated.

Brittany raised an eyebrow, "Carl?"

The little girl nodded. "Yup. Carl."

"Alright," Armando chuckled at the new name. "I like it."

* * *

Maribel ran a hand through her hair. She shot a prayer up for her children. Tears leapt to her eyes as she remember what her children went through and what they were currently going through. She prayed so hard that they'd come home. All day everyday.

"I know this can't be easy for you or Mrs. Pierce, but I appreciate you two helping out," Sue said as she sat down next to Maribel at the table that had become residence to all of their maps.

Maribel sniffled, "I don't know how much help I'm being." She looked over at Mrs. Pierce who was diligently manning the radio. Some other kids moved around her, but she couldn't seem to focus on anyone.

A silence came over the group while everyone worked on trying to find a way to the kids that were stuck out in the thick of things. Maribel tapped her pen on the table and looked at Sue, "What if we send out a signal?"

Sue cocked her head. "That's a great idea."

* * *

"So how do we get to the base from here?" Santana asked, looking back at Brittany, handing her girlfriend the map.

Brittany studied the map for a moment before saying. "Take the next exit and stay on the service road."

Puck took the exit and stayed on the service road. He followed all of Brittany's directions before pulling to a stop outside a ten foot chain link fence. Past the fence, lengths of runways ran across flat land and on the other side of the runways, hangars and buildings stood against the barren landscape.

"How do we get in?" Sam asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"I got this," Armando grabbed his shotgun and opened the door. Santana was quick to jump out of the SUV with her inexperienced brother. She rotated her shoulder a few times, the pain ripping through it each time, but if she was going to be better soon, she needed to keep it loose.

Armando walked up to the gate and pointed his shotgun at the pad lock. He looked away and pulled the trigger. Santana shielded her eyes from whatever shrapnel may fly off of it. When she looked back, Armando used the butt of his gun to knock the remaining part of the lock off of the chain it was holding around the fence.

"Nice one," Santana smiled, seeing that her brother was finally coming into his own in this post-apocalyptic world.

Armando smiled back at his sister and pulled the chain off of the fence. He pushed open the gate and Puck drove through. After the SUV was all the way in and Santana walked through, Armando closed the gate and put the chain back around it to hold it in place.

Santana got into the passenger's seat again and watched Armando get back in. She looked ahead. "Let's go to the hangars and see what's in there."

Puck drove to the hangar and pulled to a stop outside of the human sized door next to the airplane doors. He put the SUV in park and looked at Santana. "What do you want to do?"

"Armando and I will check it out," Santana opened her door and didn't hesitate to step out. She leaned into the car and looked over the middle seat. "Quinn, would you mind grabbing the binoculars and looking around?"

The blonde nodded. Rachel handed Quinn the binoculars from her stack of frequently used items in the back. Quinn smiled and kissed Rachel as she got out. Quinn easily climbed on top of the SUV and looked around while Santana and Armando walked to the door.

Armando pointed his shotgun at the door handle, but Santana put her hand on his shoulder. She pushed the barrel of the shotgun down and placed her hand on the door handle, using her thumb to pull down the level that opened the door. Armando smiled sheepishly and pushed the door open the rest of the way with his foot.

It was dark inside, but Santana inched her way inside. She felt around the wall for a switch. "Do you smell that?"

"It smells like," Armando paused, "gas."

As he said that, Santana found the switch and turned the lights on. Inside the cavernous space, a helicopter stood on the far side from them. Along the half of the far wall, blue avgas tanks were lined up end to end. Santana ran over to the helicopter and threw open the door. This was all too good to be true. They couldn't have found one of the helicopters that lifted their friends and family members away from them on the first try.

She jumped up into the helicopter and looked around it, in the helmets and under the seats for any clue that this was one of the helicopters. She climbed into the front seat and looked around. As she was running her hands lightly over the controls, she wished there was someway she could know for sure who piloted this helicopter last.

"Santana," Armando called from outside the open door of the helicopter.

Santana crawled back out of the helicopter and walked over to where her brother was standing. He had his hands on a large, rolling tool box, his shotgun resting against the side of it. Santana leaned over his shoulder and looked down at a piece of paper on the toolbox.

"That's Coach Sylvester's handwriting!" Santana shouted excitedly. "They've been there!" She looked down at the coordinated scribbled down on an old piece of paper. Her brother turned around and hugged her so hard her feet left the ground.

"What's wrong?" Quinn appeared in the doorway with Brittany behind her, both with their weapons at the ready.

Santana picked up the paper as soon as Armando put her down and quickly walked over to the two blonde's. "Look." She presented the paper to them both and they both looked it over before slowly looking up at Santana.

"That's... Coach Sylvester's handwriting," Quinn's eyebrows furrowed. "She's...been here."

"She's been here," Brittany echoed, but with more cognition that Quinn. Her eyes lit up and she smiles over Quinn's shoulder at Santana. Brittany looks at the coordinates again and runs out to the SUV to get the map.

"We're so close," Armando bounced on his toes next to his sister. "I can feel it. We're so close."

She smiled at her brother's excitement. "Calm down. We have to figure out how to get there."

"Santana," Brittany called from the door. From the look on her face Santana could tell that there was something seriously wrong. The excitement that was once there was gone. "You need to come here."

Santana trotted out the door with Armando right behind her. When she got there, she saw Brittany with the map spread against the hood of the SUV. When she got there, there was an 'X' on the map which Brittany pointed to. "That is where the coordinates are."

Santana looked over the map, raking her eyes over it. "I don't get it. What's wrong with that?"

"Because we're right here," Brittany placed her finger about a centimeter to the right of the 'X'.

"Fuck," Santana hissed. Why the fuck was Sue doing this to them? This is life or death and she's yanking their chain.

"We should go check it out," Brittany took Santana's hand, trying to reassure her, "It's about where that building over there is." She pointed to the far end of the fenced in complex.

Santana looked angrily at the 'X' on the paper. "Fine."

Instead of getting in the SUV, Santana held onto the scarred railing on top of the SUV and Puck joined her while Sam drove them down the runway toward their destination.

"Do you ever get the feeling that it has been way too long since we've seen a zombie?" Puck asked Santana over the chilly wind.

She had just been thinking that. She rotated her injured shoulder. The pain was excruciating, but not more than the knowledge that if she couldn't use it she was a sitting duck.

Sam rolled the vehicle to a stop outside the door to the hanger. Santana hopped down and Puck trotted after her, toward the door. She stopped and listened for a moment, not hearing anything more than the hum of the engine. She banged on the door and listened again. Still nothing. So she opened the door.

It was dark inside and once again Santana felt along the wall for a light switch. A small light appeared next to her and she could see that one of her fellow survivors had found a flashlight and was walking easily along the wall behind her looking for the switch. She stepped out of the way and a few seconds later she heard a click and the entire hanger was illuminated by harsh florescent lights.

Inside this hanger, two helicopters sat, both Santana recognized from the evacuation. She suddenly felt a stab in her heart. Her mom was lifted away in one of these helicopters. A hand on her back made her jump away and turn. She sighed softly when she saw Brittany with the flashlight in her hand.

The blonde picked up her hand and held it in her own. "Do you think it's safe in here? Ashley wants to get out of the car."

Santana looked around. The entire hanger was open and she could see all of it, from the helicopters to the stairs on the other end, leading up to a door that she guessed was an office. "Let me and Quinn check out that office, but it looks ok. Just warn her about playing on the helicopters."

Brittany nodded and kissed Santana's cheek.

As Quinn and Santana ascended the stairs to the office, everyone else helped find the hanger door opener and then moved some tool boxes out of the way so that Sam could pull the SUV in. They closed the door behind it and everyone set off to looking around.

"It doesn't make sense for her to send up on a wild goose chase," Quinn stated, a few steps from the door of the office. "She cares about us."

Santana knew that earlier she was being irrational. Coach Sylvester did care about them. She wouldn't mess with them when their lives were on the line. "Yeah I know. I just want to know what's in here that she wanted us to find."

Quinn reached the door first and pressed her ear to it. "Well everyone went somewhere. Maybe they left here in cars or buses." She stepped away and turned the knob. She pushed and found that the door was locked. Quinn stepped down the top landing so that Santana could get to the door. After making sure Quinn was clear, Santana kicked the door in.

"You know I'm pretty sure you can do that," Santana's hand covered her injured shoulder.

"Maybe," Quinn shrugged, looking inside the open door. The light switch in this place was a lot easier to find and Quinn flipped it on.

A long table was the centerpiece of the room. On the walls were maps and against the walls, under the maps, were computer and radio equipment. Santana walked over to one of the larger pieces of radio equipment and pressed the first red button she saw. There was a whirling noise in the room as the panel came to life. "Jackpot."

"How do we use this stuff?" Puck ran his hand over the bottom of a panel after everyone had gathered in the room. "There are so many buttons."

"Is there an instruction manual?" Rachel asked hopefully.

"That would be way to easy," Quinn quipped and immediately looked up at Rachel. Their eyes met and Quinn immediately looked away mumbling her apologies.

"Quinn and I can figure it out," Rachel offered and picked up a headset, "We made the small one work. We can get this-"

She stopped talking when the puppy started barking. It's little tail was pointing straight up as it barked it's head off at the mostly closed door.

No one spoke as the dog continued to bark. Rachel scooped up Ashley and that sent everyone into motion. Santana was the first one out the door with the puppy running out in front of her. She drew her machete with her good arm and very slowly extracted the other machete with her injured shoulder. Quinn picked up her rifle that was leaning on the wall next to the door. Puck's hand was quick behind Quinn's to pick up his shotgun. Brittany pulled one of her pistols out of the holster and followed the march out the door.

Sam and Armando lingered. They both looked at each other and with a silent nod they both perched themselves on the landing in front of the radio room door.

Santana ran after the puppy as it ran under the helicopter to the closed door. She paused at the door and picked up the dog. As soon as Brittany got close enough, Santana handed over the animal. That served to not only shut the dog up and get it out of the way, it incapacitated Brittany long enough for Santana, Quinn, and Puck to get out the door without her. Santana hated when Brittany was in direct danger.

Santana slowly walked out the door and looked around. She didn't really see what the dog was barking at. The herd of zombies she was expecting wasn't present. There wasn't-

She saw it. Movement at the same gate that they had come in. The gate that wasn't secure. It was worse than zombies. It was people.

"Quinn, get eyes on them," Santana ordered and felt around her pockets for her binoculars. She didn't seem to have them on her so she just looked across the lines of runways trying as best she could to assess the situation. She could make out a tiny blue hatchback parked sideways behind the gate. The windows were darkly tinted so it was hard to see anything other than silhouettes. There were rust spots on the car and paint chipping off the side. Outside of the car, there was a person pulling the chain off of the fence.

"Don't shoot!" Rachel ran dramatically out of the building to them and put her hand on Quinn's shoulder. "They're okay."

"Do you know them?" Santana demanded. She immediately felt betrayed by the smaller girl.

Rachel took a step back from her, "Sorta. I mean, I-I saw them before. They nodded to me."

"Where?" Santana took the step back and bent her neck down to get her face within breaths from Rachel's.

"They took the body away. The man that Brittany shot," Rachel quickly spat out, her eyes quickly searching everyone behind Santana for an ally. "They waved to me. They looked grateful."

"And you didn't think to tell anyone?" Santana narrowed her eyes. "Zombie are bad, but people are worse. Some people shot me. People are smart and they'll do anything to survive. Do you understand that? That you just put us all in danger?"

"Hey back off," Quinn pulled Rachel back and stepped in front of her, "She didn't know."

"How could she not know?" Santana glared at the blonde. She waved her hand exasperatedly at Rachel.

Quinn didn't back off and instead matched Santana's glare. "Leave her alone."

"She's trying to kill us," Santana's fists clenched and her heel barely left the ground in a move to advance on Quinn when Brittany stepped between them.

"Why don't we see what they want first?" Brittany suggested, trying to cool her girlfriend and Quinn before things got out of hand and two very skill fighters went at each other.

"Why don't I just go fucking lay down in the middle of the highway?" Santana still tried to get at Quinn around Brittany. "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Quinn growled back, "You're such a fucking-"

"That's enough!" Brittany barked, shoving the two girls away from her. They both looked back at her with a brief challenge before backing down from her stare. "I'm going to go talk to them."

"No you're not-" Santana started to step forward.

However, Brittany looked fiercely at her girlfriend and lowered her voice to a low tremor that forced a silence over everyone. "I am going to go talk to them."

Brittany was already four strides away before Puck took off after her. Santana was quick to follow him. Quinn knew her place and walked over to the bay door. She opened the bay door and climbed up on top of the SUV. Rachel rooted around in the back of the SUV and found Santana's binoculars which she used to monitor the new comers.

As they grew near, the person who had taking the chain off of the gate had scurried back to the hatchback and was hiding inside.

Brittany paused about thirty yards form the gate and shifted her weight. She holstered her pistol and raised her hands up. "Hello?"

A cautious head peeked out from the other side of the car. A dirty, scrawny man looked over the car at them. He didn't say anything. He just stared at Brittany.

"There are two other people in the car," Rachel quietly informed Quinn who had put the man's head in her crosshairs.

"Watch them," Quinn replied, "I have the guy."

"Are you okay?" Brittany asked, taking a step forward. Santana reached out to stop Brittany from moving forward, but missed her arm because Brittany kept moving forward. When Santana's hand missed Brittany's arm, she let out a small whimper.

The man pushed his shaggy hair back on his head. "Y-yeah."

"I'm Brittany," she called to him and let out a friendly smile. "Why don't you come inside? It's safer if we close the gate."

Santana felt sick. She felt like she was about to throw up. Her hands were shaking so hard that she sheathed her machetes so that she wouldn't accidentally cut Puck who was standing next to her. She took a few deep breaths before she turned around and ran.

"Santana!" Puck called and started to run after her. He knew he shouldn't leave Brittany so he stood where he was, watching Santana run away.

"Santana?" Rachel asked as her friend ran past the open door. Santana didn't seem to see or hear her because she kept running.

"Rachel," Quinn hopped down and handed off her rifle to Rachel. "Cover Brittany."

"I-I-I-I can't," Rachel shook her head looking at the rifle that was now in her hand.

Quinn held Rachel's shoulders and looked into her eyes, "I've taught you how to shoot. I know you can do it okay?"

Rachel blinked. She understood that this was important. If she didn't do this, both of her friends were in danger. "Okay. Be careful okay?" She quickly pecked Quinn on the lips and turned around to watch the new people.

Quinn trotted after Santana who had rounded the corner of the hangar that Sam, Armando, and Ashley were in. When Quinn rounded the same corner, she saw that Santana had reached the back of the fence that surrounded them and was starting to climb over.

"Santana!" Quinn sprinted over to her and grabbed Santana around the waist, pulling her off of the fence. She didn't expect Santana to limply let herself be pulled away. Santana crumpled to the ground and started sobbing. "I can't so this. I can't-" Santana pulled off her machete straps and threw them to the side. "I can't."

It terrified Quinn at how distraught Santana was. Quinn locked her arms around Santana and slowly constricted them, pulling Santana closer until her head was on Quinn's chest.

Brittany clenched her fists. She wanted so badly to run after Santana, but they needed a strong leader. A strong front to show these new people that they weren't about to be messed with.

She watched as the new people slowly drove into the complex and the man got out and closed the gate behind them. He shut off the car and slowly walked toward Brittany. His clothes were ratty and he was obviously cold outside of the car. "I'm Jeff. My, um, friends in the car are Jorge and Kelly." His eyes were on the ground as he spoke to Brittany. "We h-haven't seen people, real people, in almost a year."

"You've been out here the whole time?" Brittany asked softly, like she'd spook him if she spoke too loud or too fast.

He vigorously nodded. "We ran out of a weapons a long time ago. Jorge says six months, but we can't really tell time very well."

Brittany glanced back at Puck. Puck fluffed his mowhawk and lowered the shotgun, resting the butt on the gun on the ground.

"You, um, you saved Levi," Jeff ventured a glance at Brittany. "He was, um, going to get f-food when he was bitten. Thanks."

Brittany remembered and nodded. "No problem."

"Thanks for letting us in," Jeff turned his body sideways and looked away from Brittany. "I'm going to go sit in the car now." With that he just walked away and got into the car.

Brittany looked questioningly back at Puck who just shrugged. She turned all the way away from the car and pat Puck's shoulder as she passed him. "Get back with Rachel and watch them. I'm going to find Santana."

"What if they want something?" Puck asked. "Like food or something?"

Brittany paused her retreat and looked over her shoulder at Puck. She wasn't used to making decisions like this. Santana always did. "I - um - they can have one MRE for now, but only if they ask."

Puck nodded and looked back at the rusty hatchback.

Quinn looked up when she heard the quick footsteps approaching. Brittany looked extremely concerned. Santana was still sobbing in Quinn's arms. Brittany dropped to her knees in front of Santana and rubbed her back. "Santana?"

Santana looked up at Brittany through watery eyes. She swallowed and sniffle before staying, "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Brittany resisted her urge to cry at seeing Santana so emotionally disheveled. She cupped Santana's face in both of her hands. "It's okay."

"I just - I can't," Santana shook her head. Her trembling body not becoming less turbulent under Quinn's arms.

Brittany carefully wiped Santana's cheeks with her thumbs, "You don't have to. It's okay. It's okay, I promise."

Santana leaned into Brittany's hand and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and her tremors started to subside. Brittany took a leap and kissed Santana, her hands still cradling Santana's cheeks. Santana felt her heart stop it's sprint and slow to regular speed. She relaxed in the kiss of her girlfriend and the arms of her best friend.

"I'm so sorry," Santana murmured against Brittany's lips.

"It's okay," Brittany slid her hands to the back of Santana's neck. "I love you no matter what."

Santana sighed softly and pulled away leaning back into Quinn's torso. "I'm sorry Q."

"You don't have to be sorry," Quinn squeezed Santana. She exchanged a worried look with Brittany and carefully released Santana.

They all stood together. Quinn picked up Santana's machetes and helped her put them back on. Brittany took Santana's hand before they started walking, lacing their fingers together. Santana had her head bowed as they walked while Brittany walked powerfully, blazing the way for both of them.

"What happened?" Santana asked, wiping her eyes again, trying to make her panic attack non-existent.

"I let them in," Brittany explained, "But Jeff got back into the car and they're just sitting there. Rachel and Puck are watching them."

Santana nodded. That was probably what she would have done. She took a deep breath. This little episode is not something she wanted Armando to catch wind of.

Brittany walked right up to Rachel and Puck. "Have they done anything?"

Rachel shook her head. "They talked for a little bit. Now they're just sitting there. I think they don't know what to do. They haven't been around people. Without weapons... they had to be more scared than we are. They can't defend themselves."

"Let's go inside the hangar," Brittany suggested. "I want to check on Ashley."

"I'll stay outside," Quinn offered.

"Me too," Rachel took a step closer to Quinn.

Puck shrugged. "I wanna stay outside too." He glanced at Santana whose eyes were staring down the small hatchback.

"Alright," Brittany nodded. "Let us know if something happens." She walked inside with Santana, not giving Santana the opportunity to leave her side.

As soon as they entered the hangar, Sam stood up straighter, "What happened?"

"People," Brittany answered simply.

"Like actual people?" Sam's eyes grew wide. Armando stepped out from the radio room when he heard what was going on.

"Yeah," Brittany pulled Santana up the stairs and past the boys on the way to the radio room. Once they were inside of the room with the two boys looking in on them, Brittany let go of Santana. Ashley happily skipped over to them and hugged Brittany and then Santana.

Brittany stepped away from them and walked to the boys. She lowered her voice, "Go outside and tell Rachel and Quinn we need them inside to work the radio. Take over watch with Puck and let Carl out of the helicopter. I put him in there earlier."

Sam nodded and Armando frowned. He looked to his sister, the person he was used to taking orders from. She was sitting in the floor, absently listening to Ashley chatter away. "What's wrong with Santana?"

"She had a," Brittany lowered her voice, "She freaked out. She's okay now. I just wanna take it easy on her for right now."

Armando looked conflicted. But he looked from Brittany to Santana and back. He trusted his sister's girlfriend to take care of her so he nodded. "Alright. Let me know though. You know, if there's anything I can do."

"Of course," Brittany nodded.

Once the boys were gone, Brittany closed the door to the room and looked over at Santana. She found her girlfriend looking back at her.

Santana bit her lip before looking up at Brittany. "You don't have to protect me. I know I'm like a basket case now."

"You're not a basket case," Brittany tilted her head.

"I had a panic attack when I should have been strong," Santana hung her head and turned over one of Ashley's toys in her hands.

Brittany walked across the room and squatted in front of Santana, "You don't always have to be strong."

"That's good," Santana sighed sarcastically, "Because I'm not."

Brittany paused. She didn't know what to say for a moment. But she knew Santana. They'd been together for years and friends longer than that. Sometimes she didn't know much, but she knew Santana." Santana, you are strong. You're the strongest person I know. You've gotten us this far. That was you. And you know what? In high school, we talked about us being in a partnership. You supported me and I supported you. We've always done that and we've never stopped. That doesn't stop because there's zombies." Brittany picked up Santana's hand and kissed her knuckles. "We're in this together. You and me."

"And me!" Ashley jumped in.

Both girls laughed and pulled Ashley into a group hug. The smaller Pierce giggled. She let go of her sister and wrapped her arms around Santana's neck. "It'll be okay Santana. You're gonna get us out of here."

Santana looked over Ashley's shoulder at Brittany. Santana was silently asking for help. She wanted to get them out of there, but she was realizing that she couldn't do it alone.

"We're partners," Brittany kissed Santana.

"Ew kissing!" Ashley squealed and jumped away from them.

They both laughed at her and Brittany stood up. She offered her hands to Santana. The brunette took her girlfriend's hands and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"Ash?" Santana knelt down again, but this time to address the little girl.

The tiny blonde bounced over to Santana. "Hmm?"

"There are some people outside," Santana explained, "People you don't know, but we won't let anything happen to you. I just wanted you to know that they're there."

"Are they nice?" Ashley asked.

Santana looked up at Brittany for the answer. The blonde tucked some stray hairs behind her ear, "We don't know yet. Just stay with people you know. Rachel and Quinn will be up here in a minute."

"We're here," Quinn announced from the door.

"We were just telling Ashley that there are new people and we don't know if they're nice or not yet. She needs to stay with one of us," Santana put her hands on her hips.

"Definitely," Rachel nodded. "Ashley and I have fun together right?"

Ashley nodded and walked over to Rachel taking her hand and pulling her over to the table.

Brittany took Santana's hand again and they walked toward the door. "Let us know if you need help or you get it working," Santana told Quinn, seemingly back in charge.

Quinn nodded, "You got it Captain."

Santana paused in the doorway, looking back at Quinn. The blonde smiled and winked. "Glad you're back."

"Thank Britt," Santana stated before following said girl down the stairs.

When they got closer to the opening where the guys were it had gotten considerably colder outside. "Shit," Santana hissed. She tried to remember where she put her coat.

Brittany's arm easily made it around her shoulders. "Do you think we're safer now that it's cold?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Santana looked at the sun that was starting to fall in the sky.

They walked up to the guys that were standing around the bay door near the back of the SUV, watching the hatchback.

"Have they done anything?" Brittany asked, her arm still firmly around Santana.

Puck shook his head. "Nothing."

"Do we even know that the people in the backseat are real?" Sam asked. "And they're not like dead bodies that he keeps for company? Or blow up dolls?"

Everyone's heads slowly turned toward the little blue car.

"Has anyone actually seen them move?" Armando asked suspiciously.

As they all stared at the backseat of the car, the sun moved to a place where they could all see perfect silhouettes of the people in the backseat of the car and one of the heads in the back moved. But it wasn't subtle, it was jerky and spastic. They could see the silhouette of Jeff turn around in the car and hit the spastic person with a blunt object.

"Hey!" Sam ran to the car with the rest of the group on his heels. He threw open the driver's side door and pulled Jeff out of the car.

"Stop! What are you doing! They'll get away!" Jeff yelled, trying to get away from Sam.

"Get away from the car!" Santana yelled at everyone as soon as she saw what was in the backseat.

Puck saw what Santana saw and dove for the open driver's side door. He slammed it closed just as the zombie that was in the backseat lounged for it.

"What the fuck!" Santana ran over toward Jeff and shoved him. "Are you fucking crazy!"

"They're my friends," Jeff pleaded with Puck who was pointing his shotgun at the door where the zombie was trying desperately to get out. "Don't shoot! I had them tied up and they couldn't hurt me! I swear!" He kept struggling against Sam.

"Let him go," Santana ordered and Sam immediately did. She walked right up to Jeff and looked at his face, "We're going to kill them and you're going to have to leave. We can't have you putting us in danger."

"No you can't," he pleaded with her. "They're my friends."

"They're trying to kill you," she stated, coldly.

"They don't mean it," he dropped to his knees. "Please don't kill them."

Santana looked around at the group. Puck kept his eyes on the window. Brittany was hard to read. Santana knew that this was up to her. She looked back at him. "Can you get in your car without being killed?"

He quickly nodded. "I can."

Santana looked down at the man. She then looked around at her friends. "We're pushing this car out those gates, closing it and then you can try. If they get out or you get bitten, I will personally kill them."

He nodded, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

After some minor mechanical work to disengage the parking break, Puck and Santana kept their weapons ready and aimed at the doors. Jeff helped the rest of the guys push the car out the gate. Once it was outside the gate, they all walked back inside and closed it.

"We're not just going to let him die are we?" Armando asked.

Santana unsheathed her machetes, a wince came when she withdrew her left one. "We're going to try not to let him die, but we're not going to put any of our lives in danger because he's lost his mind." She looked down at the line of her friends watching the crazy man walk toward the car. "Aim guys."

Two shotguns, one rifle and a pistol was raised in the ready for what might happen to the pour soul who thought that he could save his friends. Santana readjusted her grip on her machetes and watched Jeff.

The zombie in the backseat seemed to still be restrained and was wildly trying to get free. The zombie that was now in the front seat had long blonde hair that was matted with dirt and blood. What used to be a young woman was now a blood thirsty animal. She kept trying to get out of the window, using broken and cracked fingernails to scratch her way out of the driver's side window.

Jeff moved to the passenger's door and didn't hesitate to open the door. "Hey Kelly," he smile like she still knew who he was. "Can you get-" That was as far as he got. She leapt as best a zombie could from the driver's seat at him. Her foot caught on the gear shifter and she fell with a thud and a growl.

Jeff seemed to finally get the picture and started running away. As soon as the zombie got free, it drug itself out of the car and was reaching for him. Four shots went off with mere milliseconds between them. The zombie laid on the ground re-dead, for good that time.

"What did you do?" Jeff yelled at them, "I could have saved her!"

"We saved your dumbass life," Santana stated. She knew that he wouldn't understand that they had in fact saved him from himself. She also knew that he would probably be the source of his own demise while he tried to save the other zombie in the back of his car.

The rest of the group watched in silence as Jeff opened the back of his hatchback and proceeded to put the twice dead body of a girl who use to be Kelly into it. When it was all the way in, he closed it and got in the driver's seat without another word to the group. He turned on the car and drove off, mumbling things about saving Kelly and Jorge.

Puck exhaled. "That dude was fucking crazy." He put his arms around Sam and Brittany. "I am so glad I'm out here with you guys. And they you're not zombies tied up in the back of my car."

Santana quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What?" He asked, "Too soon?"

"Let's get inside," Armando yawned. "It's been a long fucked up day."

They all started walking back to the hangar where Quinn, Rachel, and Ashley were hopefully already communicating with the outside world. Brittany took Santana's hand as they walked inside. They shared a small smile that only they knew the meaning of as they brought up the rear.

The entire group stopped abruptly when they heard the squealing of tires. They all whipped around toward the noise and were just in time to witness the all too familiar blue hatchback crash through the gate and barrel toward them.

Everyone scattered and managed to not get hit as the crazy man proved crazier than any of them imagined.

"Shoot out the tires!" Sam yelled above the rev of the engine as Jeff went down one of the runways only to make a quick u-turn, swerving as he started to make another run at them.

Everyone fired several shots except for Santana who didn't have any firearms on her. Even Quinn had run out and joined in the many shots that were being taken at the insane man trying to kill them all. Santana stood in the middle of a runway, her eyes locked with Jeff's. He was going to try to kill her specifically. The look in his eyes told her so.

Santana could almost feel him stomp on the gas pedal. It was like being punched in the stomach. She didn't have a gun and all she could do was run and hope that someone got to him before he got to her. She decided to run away from the hangar where Ashley was, determined to do anything to protect the little girl inside.

Santana could hear the roar of the motor get closer before someone finally hit his front driver's side tire and the front passenger's side tire went quickly after that. He lost control of the vehicle and screeched as he tried to regain control of it. It was hopeless as the speed he was going and the car flipped over on it's side, away from Santana, many times before coming to a stop right side up.

The sounds didn't stop then though. A murderous growl and a terrified screaming cut through the air. They could all hear Jeff screaming, "Jorge! Jorge stop! Stop! Ahh!"

Puck ran toward the wreckage and saw Jorge bite a chunk out of the neck of the man who had tried to save him while Kelly's body lay strewn across the backseat. Puck pointed his shotgun through the window and shot until he was out of shells. Only then was it quiet.

Puck slowly shook his head as he turned and walked away, back to his friends. Sam pulled Puck into a hug and patted his back for a moment. Puck just stood there before pulling back. "I say we torch the car. We can't move it and I don't wanna leave it there."

"A signal fire for all the other crazies in the area to come try to run us down with their cars?" Armando asked, the sharp tongue of the Lopez family making it's presence apparent.

"A signal fire for someone to find us," Puck snapped back.

"Also, there are millions of zombies out there looking for a way to find us," Quinn crossed her arms, "We don't need to give them, one, a way to find us and two, a way to warm themselves up all the better to chase us with."

Off to the side, Brittany was standing in front of Santana just looking at her. Santana had yet to say anything since another attempt was made on her life. Santana wasn't crying or running away so Brittany took this as not quite a good sign, but a step in the right direction.

Santana looked up and met Brittany's eyes. She picked up Brittany's left hand and kissed the tops of her fingers. "I love you."

"I love you too," Brittany let out a breathy smile. She was so happy that Santana was ok.

Santana slowly lowered herself down onto one knee and looked up at Brittany. "I know this isn't the ideal situation or the most romantic, but will you marry me?"

Brittany's smile grew wide as she dropped to her knees and pull Santana into a long, languid, and lingering kiss. She took her time, kissing Santana like she hadn't in a long time. When she pulled away, it felt like slow motion. She looked into Santana's eyes and nodded.

"Lets do it right now," Brittany stood up and pulled Santana up.

Santana furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"There aren't laws," Brittany took Santana's hand and pulled her toward the group that was standing around the wreckage. "There aren't churches. What's stopping us?"

* * *

"I found it!" Finn burst into the door. He came face to face with a Desert Eagle before Sue saw that it was him.

"You can't come running in here like that," Sue huffed and holstered her gun.

Kurt, who was standing at the radio console with Blaine, crossed his arms, "You'd think he'd have learned by now."

"Third time?" Blaine asked his boyfriend.

"Fifth," Kurt turned back to the radio, no longer interested.

"What is it honey?" Mrs. Pierce moved toward Finn eager for any suggestion to get her girls back.

Finn pull off his puffy vest and tossed it onto the nearest chair. "We play something over the radio. Something that they'll know it's us."

"Do you have any ideas?" Maribel Lopez asked, a bit skeptical that this would work.

Finn grinned. "I have the perfect idea."

* * *

Sam and Armando had gone outside of the gates to get a bunch of brush and branches to cover the car. Not only did it look nicer as they whole thing was set ablaze, but it smelled a lot better than it would have if it was just the rotting zombies and the twisted metal.

Ashley was busy, sitting in the back of the open SUV, picking leaves off of a branch that Sam gave her and putting them in an empty MRE tray. Sam and Armando had used as little water as possible to wash out and style their hair.

"Psst," Armando peeked out from one side of the SUV to Quinn who was standing in front of the bonfire, her hand folded in front of her.

She looked at Rachel and Puck who were standing next to her and nodded. Rachel quietly counted, "Five, six, seven, eight." The three of them started humming the bridal march at the same time.

Ashley hopped out of the back of the SUV and picked up her tray of leaves. She grinned widely as she walked toward Quinn, throwing leaves on either side of herself. Quinn smiled at the little girl and winked at her. When Ashley got all the way to Quinn, she gave the blonde a hug before hugging Puck and then hugging Rachel, keeping her arm around Rachel's waist as they stood together.

There's something about getting married as the world is going down the toilet that is romantic. Everything around you is falling down, but here you are getting married, standing strong in your love while doom is breathing down your necks.

So with her arm loops through Armando's, Brittany stepped out of the hangar from her side of the SUV. Santana stepped out of the other side, her hand formally on the forearm of Sam's bend arm. The boys were standing between them, but Brittany and Santana managed to look at each other around them and burst out laughing together.

When they all got to the group standing by the fire, Sam and Armando turned toward each other, turning the girls toward each other as well. Brittany and Santana let go of their escorts and took each other's hands resisting the urge to kiss each other immediately.

"Dearly beloved," Quinn looked over the small, rag-tag group of kids. "We are gathered here because of a virus that infects people, turning them into zombies."

Rachel elbowed Quinn. Quinn chuckled and Rachel smiled. The blonde rubbed her side where Rachel's elbow hit. "We're also here because of my two best friends." She licked her lips. "You guys love each other more and harder and more passionately than anyone I've ever seen or heard of. I've very honored that you asked me to officiate."

"Get on with it," Brittany bounced on her toes causing everyone to laugh.

"Do you, Santana Lopez take Brittany Pierce as your wife?" Quinn asked, seriously.

Santana nodded, "Yes."

"Do you, Brittany Pier-" Quinn started.

But Brittany interrupted, "Yes." Again everyone laughed.

"You may kiss the bride," Quinn said, but barely got the last syllable out before Brittany practically jumped Santana.

"Alright, that's enough messing around," Santana finally had to get everyone back to work. Remembering that you're kids is hard to let go of when you never get to remember. "Sam and Puck need to get the gate fixed, preferably stuck closed. Rachel, Quinn, and Armando need to get the radio up and running."

The sun had already gone down and Santana was getting antsy. She enjoying singing and dancing with her friend and her wife, but she was nervous beyond nervous about the impending nightfall.

"You're my aunt?" Ashley asked Santana as the brunette picked her up and sat her in on the floor of the helicopter so that she was out of the way while Santana shut the bay door.

"Sister-in-law," Santana corrected the little girl.

"You're my sister?" Ashley scrunched up her nose.

"Mhmm," Santana nodded and then shrugged, "Well sorta. In-law means I married your sister."

Ashley nodded and picked at the dried fruit in her MRE. "Cool."

"Why don't you take your food up to the radio room and see if you can help Quinn, Brittany, and Rachel?" Santana offered, "I have to go check on Sam and Puck."

"Be careful," Ashley told Santana. "I like it that you're my sister-in-law."

Santana smiled. "Me too." She kissed the top of Ashley's head and watched her carefully climb the stairs. Santana picked up her coat next to where Ashley had been sitting and put it on. Without the fire it was freezing outside. She made sure she could still access her machetes and opened the human sized door to the hangar.

The moon was full and easily lit her way over to Sam and Puck, but it still freaked her out that she couldn't see outside of fence. When she got to the gate though she was a little relieved with that the guys did with it. They had wrapped some loose wires together over the part where the gate opened so that it would be really hard to open, especially from the outside.

"How's married life treating you?" Puck smirked up as her as they admired their handy work.

Santana easily smiled for the first time in a while, "It's great so far. No one has tried to eat us so far and we're in scenic middle of nowhere Canada."

"We'll get out of here," Sam put his arm around Santana.

"I have an idea," Rachel stood in the middle of the room. "Why don't we just press all the buttons?"

"Okay," Ashley jumped up, excited about the prospect of actually helping out instead of sitting under the table and staring at the ground. She started pressing buttons.

"It's better than what we were doing," Armando shrugged and started following Ashley's lead as did Brittany..

Rachel looked at Quinn like she couldn't believe what Armando and Brittany were doing until Quinn started doing it too. Rachel finally huffed and started pressing all the buttons she could see.

"I'm so glad we left the smart ones in here to fix this," Santana murmured to Sam and Puck in the doorway of the radio room.

They just watched as everyone pressed every button they could see. As they went along everyone listened and prayed.

"Hey, hey, hey," Armando hushed everyone and pressed a button on and off again. A small static noise came out of one of the speakers on the console. "I found something." He turned the knob he had been playing with and the sounds of a piano came through. Armando tilted his head to the side and listened more carefully as a man started singing.

"Holy shit," Santana took a step back and grabbed Brittany's hand.

"What?" Armando asked, looking around at all the spooked kids.

"That's 'Don't Stop Believing'," Puck's eyes flew around the room. "That's our song."

"Finn!" Rachel yelled, excitedly, "That's gotta be Finn!" She pulled Quinn up to the panel Armando was standing at. The two girls looked around panel for somewhere to talk back. Quinn used her finger to scan the panel and then sighed heavily when she saw a jack for where the microphone went. There was no microphone in the room. "Fuck." She dropped her hand and accidentally hit a button. A buzz filled the room.

Rachel looked over at Quinn, "Do that again."

Quinn pressed the button again. It buzzed again.

"Maybe they can hear it," Rachel bounced on her toes. "Press the button in time with the song. That way they know it's us."

"Alright," Quinn listened to the static filled song before pressing the buzzer in time with the beat.

Mercedes sat in the storage room and hummed along with the song that had been on repeat for days. She didn't mind as much as everyone else because it broke up the silence. She didn't like silence. Before the outbreak her house was always a joyous, boisterous, and loud place. Sam fit right in and wasn't intimidated because of the noise and amount of people because Sam was from a big family as well.

* * *

Mercedes smiled softly thinking of all the times Sam came over for family gatherings and how many times Sam came to church with her family. Her family loved him and so did she. She really wanted him back.

As she was thumbing through a manual that Sue wanted her to categorize, she heard it. A soft buzz. She almost didn't notice it because it was in time with the music. Her eyes grew wide and she stood up from her seat. "It's them! Oh thank god, it's them!"

Finn grinned and stood up. "I told you! I told you they'd know!"

Sue put down the gun she was cleaning and called, "Giant boy go get the rest of the people. We have some worried mothers that will want to know that their children are okay." Finn nodded and took off running out the door to round up the rest of the group. Sue picked up a large book out of a box and walked over to Mike. She dropped the book on the table in front of him. It was a manual for a Bell 214ST. "Get reading."

* * *

The buzzing noise would have normally annoyed everyone, but they knew it was their chance to get out. Even Carl stopped barking at it and went to sleep on Ashley's lap.

Sam had taken over buzzing and even threw in a little freestyle. Rachel hit him in the shoulder and told him to keep with the song. Quinn chuckled, watching Rachel monitor the buzzing beats. She was sitting on the table, keeping an eye on the radio panel. She didn't want to get her hopes up. Radios had saved them before, but this was a much more difficult radio. They didn't even know the sound was leaving that room, but it made everyone happy and it gave them hope so she wasn't going to be a wet blanket.

Armando looked around the small room and didn't see his sister or Brittany so he walked to the door. Puck stepped in front of him before he could open it. "Sorry, the newlyweds are in their honeymoon suite."

Armando took a step back, "What?"

"They're doing it in the helicopter," Puck leveled with him.

"Oh god!" Armando covered his ears, "Dude, that's my sister."

Puck chuckled. "Hey I know we've had our differences. There was that time that you chased me out of the window of Santana's room sophomore year. Then that time junior year. For the record though, we were just talking that time junior year." Puck smirked, "And I may have called you a pussy a couple times when we first started out."

"When did you say that?" Armando asked.

Puck rubbed the hairs of his mowhawk. "It maybe have been in my head. Anyway, I'm sorry and I think you're pretty badass." He offered his hand to Armando.

Armando smiled and slapped his hand, "No problem. I always kind of thought of you as a little brother."

Puck nodded. "I like that. I always wanted a brother."

Sue was wearing a hunter green jumpsuit as she lead the small team of kids toward the small collection of aircrafts on the base. The light snow crunched under their feet as they crept up to the open lot where Sue had picked out the perfect helicopter. They obviously couldn't take all of their small group of rescuers. For physical and emotional reasons, no parents were going. Mike wasn't scared to hang off of the helicopter and Finn had read the flight manual so they both had to go. Tina and Mercedes were going to be the eyes out of the helicopter and Lauren was battle-ready. Also Sue said she needed to come in case they needed any doors broken down or holes made in walls.

Sue snuck to the pilot's seat and Finn got into the co-pilot's seat. Mike, Tina, Mercedes, and Lauren got into the back of the helicopter and Mike slide the door shut with a quiet click. This was going as planned.

Sue and Finn started their pre-flight checks as quickly as possible. That was all until a flashlight shone onto Finn's face. "Excuse me," a man in a military uniform said authoritatively, "Where are you going?"

"Out for ice cream," Sue turned on the motors and ignored the orders to keep the helicopter on the ground.

The guard reached through the small window by Finn and grabbed onto his control stick so that they couldn't steer properly.

Lauren stepped between the two pilot seats and leaned over Finn. She pointed out past the guard. "Hey look what's that?" The guard followed her finger for a moment before realizing it was a joke. When he turned back she punched him in the face and he fell to the ground, freeing the controls.

"Let's get this show on the road," Lauren directed and sat back into her seat.

Rachel took over pressing the buzzer when Sam got tired of it. Now she was tapping it in time with the music as best she could with her head resting on the console next to the button. A soft hand worked it way into her hair and massaged her scalp. She didn't have to look up to know it was Quinn. She just sighed contently and closed her eyes.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Quinn kissed her cheek.

"I can't," Rachel stifled a yawn. "I have to keep pressing the button."

"I think if anyone is going to get our message they would have gotten it by now," Quinn tenderly wrapped her fingers around Rachel's buzzer-pressing wrist and pulled it away from the button.

Rachel looked around the room and noticed that everyone was pretty much starting to pass out. Santana was still awake. She was sitting with her back to the door. Both of the Pierce sisters had decided to use Santana's lap, as a pillow and Santana seemed content to stroke the blonde hair, keeping the girls asleep.

Sam was sitting against a wall with her head lulled back and Puck and Armando were sprawled across the floor. Carl was curled up under the table.

"Fine," Rachel sat up and let out a huge yawn, "but you have to be my pillow."

"Deal," Quinn pressed the button down one last time before joining Rachel.

Santana blinked, realizing that she must had fallen asleep. The reason she was waking up sent her into a panic. Carl was barking at the crease in the door, scratching and growling.

The entire room started coming to life when everyone heard the barking. Santana hopped up onto her feet and reached for her machetes. Ashley picked Carl up although he was trying to squirm away and ran to the other end of the room.

Puck reached for the doorknob and pushed it open enough for Santana to slip out. Inside the hangar all was quiet. Santana, Puck, and Sam quickly descended the stairs. When they got to the ground, Santana stopped off at the SUV to grab a flashlight in case their bonfire had gone out. Sam and Puck were already at the door when Santana caught up to them.

The blonde boy opened the door and a nauseatingly familiar smell washed over them. The dying fire didn't provide much light so Santana clicked on the flashlight. She started with a sweep of the area directly around the hangar and then moved out. There was nothing around the fire and then she pointed her flashlight out toward the fence. The light reflected off of dead eyes.

"Is it just the one?" Puck asked, looking around.

Santana scanned the rest of the fence. There was another one, but it seemed like just the two of them. Santana didn't bother going up to get her coat from the radio room. She walked to the fence with Sam and Puck behind her. With a few swipes of her machetes, the two zombies weren't something they needed to worry about anymore.

"I think Quinn was right about the fire," Santana murmured.

The spotlight under the helicopter swept across the length of highway they were flying along. Some cars peppered the road, but for the most part the road was empty.

"Are we there yet?" Lauren asked through the headset in the helicopter, assault rifle in hand.  
Sue looked at her controls. "We should be coming up on them any second. Keep a sharp eye out."  
Although he was harnessed to the inside of the helicopter, Tina couldn't help, but keep a hand on the back of Mike's jacket as he aimed the spotlight at the ground, looking all over the place for their friends.

Every time the light swept over a zombie, the grip on the back of Mike's jacket got tighter. Tina could see exactly what Mike could see and they could both see that there were zombies that were coming across were becoming more frequent and they were all heading in the same direction.

"Is that a fire?" Finn asked from the co-pilot seat, pointing ahead of them.

Sue squinted. Her eyes weren't what they used to be, but they were still superior to most people. "We're going to take her down for a better look."

Mike swiveled the light around and pointed it to where the fire was. It was inside of a fenced off rectangle with huge metal buildings lining one side.

"It's Santana!" Tina squealed when they saw the first tiny figure on the ground. She was running toward the fence where Mike shined the light. There was a mob of zombies pressing against the gate, trampling each other in an attempt to get to Santana.

"It can't be just her," Mercedes looked out the window, tears gathering in her eyes and her heart dropping. She would do anything to see a flash of blonde shaggy hair.

"Look at the last building!" Finn said excitedly, pointing to the building farthest away from them. The hangar aircraft door was open and movement could be seen inside. "There's more of them!"

On the ground, Santana ignored the blinding light and tried to kill as many zombies as she could through the fencing without hurting the fence. It was hard dodging the rotting hands that wanted nothing more than a shot at her throat. She'd occasionally trip over a severed arm that she had chopped off because it was sticking through the fence. With every thrust of her machetes, she remembered who she was fighting for. Her friends, her wife, her sister-in-law. They were everything she loved so nothing was going to stop her from protecting them.

"Santana!" Puck ran up to her as she shoved both of her machetes out of the fenced and used them as scissors on a zombie's head. "There's a helicopter! It fucking worked!"

"Get everyone on the helicopter!" Santana yelled at him, slashing off an arm that was reaching for him through the gate. Puck nodded and as he was about to walk off, she grabbed him by the collar, pulling his face down to hers. "Ashley is the first person on the helicopter."

Puck nodded quickly, knowing how protective Santana got and knowing that she wouldn't hesitate to take a machete to his balls if anything at all happened to Ashley. When she let go, he took off running toward the hangar.

Mike swept the light over the perimeter, trying to see where everyone was. He stopped moving the light around when spotted something that the kids on the ground couldn't see. There was a small group of zombies behind the far building, where the others were headquartered, who had made a hole in the fence and gotten though. "They're coming in behind them!" Mike yelled at everyone in the helicopter.

"Mercedes," Sue quickly and concisely ordered. "The radio."

Mercedes picked up the microphone to the radio that she had been instructed to hold through the whole trip and put it to her lips. "Guys watch out! They're coming in behind you!"

Armando didn't stop to think about who was talking to him through the speaker in the radio room. He just grabbed a shotgun and ran down the stairs, leaving Rachel, Quinn, Ashley, and Carl alone in the room.

"Brittany!" Armando called the blonde who was trying to reload her pistol magazine as quickly as possible, leaving a mess of bullets on top of a tall, red toolbox, "They're coming in the back behind the building."

She nodded and jammed the clip back into her gun. After cocking it, she grabbed her other pistol and ran with Armando out the door.

"C'mon," Puck burst into the radio room, panting heavily. "There's a helicopter outside."

Tears immediately started pouring out of Rachel's eyes. Quinn scooped up Ashley and took Rachel's hand, pulling her out the door. Carl ran on Quinn's heels as they followed Puck out.

Santana looked behind her to see Brittany shooting at some zombies that had gotten in. She didn't know how she missed them, but she felt responsible for missing it. She sprinted over to help her wife protect the group of people making sure that Ashley got to the helicopter first. She completely ignored that her shoulder was bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound that had now completely opened up from the exertion.

As Sue landed the helicopter, as close as possible to the hangar, yet a safe distance away, Mike and Lauren jumped out to help everyone in. As promised, Puck made sure that Ashley was the first one in.

Quinn picked up Carl and set him on the floor of the helicopter. Quinn helped Rachel up and turned around to see where the rest of the group was. Sam and Armando were fighting off the zombies that had gotten in as were Brittany and Santana. Sam look out a whoop as he unloaded shell after shell into a heard of zombies, mowing them down. Armando seemed to share in Sam's delight. Santana looked like she was just playing with the zombies before severing their heads. Brittany was trick shooting at the zombies. She shot behind her back one time and then with her arms crossed.

Sue slid open her window and whistled. Out of habit, Brittany and Santana looked toward the sound of the whistle. They saw that almost everyone was ready to take off.

Sam and Armando ran to the helicopter, easily slipping away from the cold-impaired zombies. Puck extended his fist to the boys with his arm around Lauren. Sam absently bumped his fist, in a hurry to get back to Mercedes. Armando smiled at Puck and bumped his fist before getting in. Brittany and Santana cut down the remaining few zombies in the group that they were fending off and trotted to the helicopter. Santana sheathed her machetes and Brittany put her pistols in her holsters.

"Well done ladies," Sue saluted the two girls as they walked the rest of the way to the helicopter. Mike hugged them both and chivalrously helped them into the helicopter. Everyone else piled in and as soon as the doors were closed, the helicopter left the ground.

Out the window, Armando could see that the zombies at the other end had finally broken in and were stumbling over each other and a pile of severed limbs to get to the ascending helicopter.

"Did we really just get rescued?" Santana loudly whispered over the loud rudders of the helicopter into Brittany's ear.

The blonde smiled. She turned her head so that she could whisper in Santana's ear. "I guess this is our honeymoon." She looked down at the blood coming through Santana's shirt. She frowned and looked around the helicopter for a first aid kit. When she found it, she cleaned up Santana's wound and rewrapped it, happy with the knowledge what when they got back a real medical person could look at it.

When they landed at the island base, they were greeted with a full decontamination and Santana received a couple stitches in her shoulder and was given a real sling. Then finally they were reunited with their families in a domed barracks building that was warmed against the frigid cold outside. Brittany's mom knelt down and pulled Ashley to her chest, sobbing harder than everyone else.

Santana's mom pulled her son and daughter into a two-armed hug, causing them both to have to bend over to hug their mom. They didn't seem to mind..

Mrs. Pierce stood up with Ashley in her arms and pulled Brittany to her. "I was so scared I'd lost my girls."

"I'm so happy mommy," Ashley didn't to want to let go of her mom and visa versa.

"Me too baby," Mrs. Pierce sniffled. She pulled away from Brittany a bit. "You took care of your sister. All that time. I am so, so proud of you."

"Me and Santana did it," Brittany demurely corrected her mom.

Ashley pulled away from her mom to look at her face, "Santana's my sister-in-law!"

"She's what?" Mrs. Pierce's eyebrows rose and pulled away from Brittany to look at her.

Brittany just beamed. "Santana and I got married." She looked over at Santana who was looking back. Santana winked at her and turned back to her mom who was telling them something.

Occasionally Santana would catch herself watching the door, waiting for the sounds of the undead, coming toward them even though it was highly unlikely. They were on an island and the water around the island was icy, making it difficult for even the least decomposed zombie to move, much less swim.

Her eyes turned back to the small wooden table in the room where the rest of the group was eating to their hearts' content. Quinn offered Rachel a part of an orange and turned back to her mom who was sitting on her other side. Quinn's mom ruffled Quinn's bangs and instead of cringing like she used to, Quinn smiled. Rachel's dads leaned forward from their pleas next to Rachel and asked Quinn something before they all laughed. Mercedes' family kept bringing Sam food, trying to get him to eat more. Mercedes just smiled softly at him in a half apology, but Sam didn't seemed to mind so long as he had his arm around Mercedes.

Puck had the whole Hudson-Hummel, Puckerman, and Zises families around him as he told stories of their epic adventure. Every time he'd raise his hand like there was a sword in it, Santana knew he was talking about her. She might have minded if she had the energy.

Her brother was sitting on his bed next to his mom. His bed was only two from Santana's their mom's being the only bed separating them.

Santana herself was holding Brittany's hand on their bed as they watched Brittany's mom stare at Ashley playing with Carl.

That night, no one slept much. No one wanted to. They were reunited with their families and they never wanted to leave them again. The Hudson-Hummels. The Jones'. The Evans'. The Berrys. The Fabrays. The Lopezes. The Pierces. The Lopez-Pierces (or Pierce-Lopezes). The Puckermans. The Zises'. The Changs. The Cohen-Changs. The New Directions. What was left of many families was now one family. May shattered pieces becoming a whole.

* * *

As usual you can find me on tumblr under pleasant-hell


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